SK hynix 3Q26: ₩104.6T at an 80% Margin, and the Rent Went Under Contract

The setup

SK hynix reported revenue of ₩104.6T (~US$77.49B) for the third quarter and operating profit of ₩83.3T (~US$61.73B). That is a 79.7% operating margin on the largest quarter in the company's history. Revenue was up 31.9% on the quarter and 327.9% on the year; operating profit was up 37.6% and 632.1%. Put the headline against its own history and it stops looking like a quarter. FY2023 revenue, the whole year, was ₩32.77T. This quarter alone is 3.2 times that. In the first quarter of 2025 the company sold ₩17.64T, so revenue has multiplied 5.9 times in six quarters, and the company itself counted "record results for 6 consecutive quarters."

Net profit fell. It came in at ₩39.8T (~US$29.46B), down 57.7% from the second quarter's ₩93.9T, because ₩32.6T (~US$24.17B) of non-operating losses landed below the operating line where the second quarter had a ₩62.2T gain. Those two numbers are the same holding moving in two directions, and this page treats them as one item, not two surprises.

The call this site made in July should be graded first. On July 30 the second-quarter dive said SK hynix had "traded top-tick upside for booked demand": long-term agreements with about ten customers covered about half of sales, and that book was why DRAM price growth slowed to about 30% from about 60%. The prediction it implied was that price growth would keep slowing while volume did the work. It held. DRAM bit shipments rose "approximately 10% as planned," the guide given in July, and DRAM average selling prices rose in the high-20s percent. The contract book grew from about ten customers to 14. The margin rose anyway, by 3.4 points. That last part the July page did not predict, and the reason is the subject of the next three sections.

The numbers

Revenue, operating profit, profit before tax and net profit are from the preliminary Form 6-K; EBITDA, cash, debt and the non-operating split are from the earnings call and the results deck. The 6-K is provisional: the external audit "has not yet been completed," and the figures "may be subject to change." The non-operating result is profit before tax less operating profit in each quarter, so the third quarter's (32.63) is ₩83.33T minus ₩50.71T, and 3Q25's +3.41 is ₩14.79T minus ₩11.38T. USD conversions on this page are at about ₩1,350 per dollar, approximate, near the early-September Seoul close of ₩1,336.1 reported by the financial press; the won strengthened through the quarter, which is also why there is an FX loss below the line.

The ingredient split is in the deck. DRAM was 75% of revenue, NAND 24%, other 1%, per the results deck as summarized by Investing.com. Against the second quarter's 73% and 27%, that puts DRAM revenue near ₩78.5T, up about 35.5%, and NAND near ₩25.1T, up about 17.2%; both are rounded shares times reported revenue, so treat them as approximate to a point or two. DRAM bits rose about 10% and price rose in the high-20s. NAND bits fell slightly and NAND price rose in the mid-20s. Server DDR5 shipments rose more than 40%.