SK hynix reported record third-quarter revenue of 104.6 trillion won and operating profit of 83.3 trillion won on AI memory demand, and unveiled about 100 trillion won in 2026 shareholder returns.
SK hynix reported record third-quarter revenue of 104.6155 trillion won for July to September 2026, its first quarter above 100 trillion won, with record operating profit of 83.3338 trillion won, the company announced on 28 October. Revenue rose 31.9% from the second quarter and 327.9% from a year earlier, while operating profit rose 37.6% sequentially and 632.1% year on year, for an operating margin of about 79.7%. Net profit was 39.7756 trillion won.
The second-quarter comparators were revenue of 79.3187 trillion won and operating profit of 60.5426 trillion won. The company said demand for AI memory drove the result, with shipments of its HBM4 high-bandwidth memory ramping and expected to overtake HBM3E in volume and revenue in the fourth quarter. Long-term agreements with 14 customers cover more than half of its 2027 to 2028 capacity, and net cash stood at 98.7 trillion won at the end of the quarter.
Alongside the results, SK hynix unveiled about 100 trillion won in 2026 shareholder returns, worth about $75 billion, including more than 30 trillion won in dividends plus buybacks and cancellations, a 40 trillion won buyback completed last week, and a third-quarter cash dividend of 14 trillion won, or 20,000 won per share including a 10,000 won special dividend funded by gains on its Kioxia investment.
The company's release confirms the revenue, operating profit, net profit, margin, capacity agreements and shareholder-return figures. Market forecasts for operating profit differed slightly between secondary sources, with Aju citing a FnGuide forecast of 76.96 trillion won and Seoul Economic Daily citing 75.97 trillion won, so this story reports the beat qualitatively rather than asserting a single consensus figure. Dow Jones also reported that net profit came in below a FactSet consensus of 61.418 trillion won, a reminder that the record operating result and the bottom line tell different stories, since non-operating losses weighed on net profit.
Chief executive Kwak Noh-jung called the margin evidence of a structural shift in the memory business, according to earnings-call coverage, and the scale of the long-term agreements suggests customers are locking in supply well beyond this quarter rather than buying spot. If that demand holds, the AI memory cycle that produced an almost 80% operating margin has further to run; if it cools, a quarter this concentrated in one product cycle will be difficult to repeat.
The next test will come in the fourth quarter, when HBM4 is expected to overtake its predecessor in volume and revenue and when the company must show whether the capacity already contracted for 2027 and 2028 converts into shipments at similar margins.