SK Hynix’s third-quarter profit beats expectations, promises $75 billion in shareholder returns

Investing.com– SK Hynix reported stronger-than-expected third-quarter operating profit on Wednesday, as the South Korean memory chip giant announced plans to return a total of 100 trillion won ($75.5 billion) to shareholders this year.

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Shares of the company jumped nearly 8 percent to 1,446,000 won in Seoul trading.

SK Hynix’s operating profit for the three months ended Sept. 30 jumped 632 percent year-on-year to 83.33 trillion won, well ahead of Bloomberg’s estimate of 77.5 trillion won.

Revenue jumped 328 percent to a record 104.615 billion won, while net profit jumped 216 percent to 39.78 trillion won, the chipmaker said in a statement.

The company, among the world’s largest memory chip makers and one of the biggest winners from the artificial intelligence boom, said it would target a shareholder return of 100 trillion won for the year.

This will include cash dividends of 30 trillion won or more, as well as stock buybacks and cancellations of 60 trillion won or more, including the 40 trillion won buyback announced in August and completed last week.

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SK Hynix said it plans to meet its commitment to return 50% or more of free cash flow to shareholders and will share with shareholders most of the gains made on its investment in Japanese memory chip maker Kioxia Holdings (TYO:285A), representing a special dividend of 10,000 won for the third quarter.

It announced a 14 trillion won cash dividend for the third quarter, or 20,000 won per share – including the Kioxia payment – and a 20 trillion won share buyback.

The company said it expects the memory shortage to persist through 2030, amid growing and outsized demand for AI.

It plans to increase production capacity, both of conventional memory for AI servers, and of high-bandwidth memory for advanced processors.

SK Hynix said it has entered into long-term agreements with 14 major customers that cover more than 50% of its total production capacity for 2027 and 2028.

SK Hynix, along with rivals Samsung Electronics and Micron, accounted for about 95% of global DRAM production as of mid-2026, a position that has earned them huge profits from AI over the past year.

The company is a major supplier to Nvidia and controls between 50% and 58% of HBM’s global supplies, according to Counterpoint Research.