SK Hynix chip plant in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, S. Korea (Courtesy of SK Hynix)
The memory chip market is expected to remain upbeat for a considerable time after the industry was resurrected by strong demand for high-performing memory chips such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM), said SK Hynix Inc.’s chief.
“The memory chip market is expected to stay buoyant until the first half of next year,” SK Hynix Chief Executive Officer Kwak Noh-jung told the employees during the company’s town hall meeting on Wednesday.
“HBM demand has helped the memory chip industry turn around,” added Kwak, hinting that the artificial intelligence boom-triggered high value-added memory chip demand will maintain the current upward memory trend for a while.
SK Hynix plans to actively respond to the anticipated rise in demand for memory chips for AI servers next year to maintain its lead in the HBM market.
SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung speaks at a press conference on SK Hynix’s vision for the AI era on Aug. 2, 2024 (Courtesy of SK Hynix)
Especially, it pins high hopes on the sixth-generation HBM chips, or HBM4, which is under development by SK Hynix in partnership with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (TSMC).
It is expected to roll out the 12-layer HBM4 in the second half of next year.
The South Korean chip giant, which is the world’s second-largest memory chip maker, is currently leading the global HBM market ahead of its bigger memory rival Samsung Electronics Co.
SK Hynix is the only supplier of the fifth-generation HBMs, or HBM3Es, to Nvidia Corp.
Samsung Electronics’ HBM3E is going through Nvidia’s qualification test now, and the company expected it would pass the test in the third quarter of this year.
SK Hynix HBM3E (Courtesy of SK Hynix)
Kwak, however, said “it remains to be seen” whether the memory chip market’s upturn trend would continue into the second half of next year and beyond.
SK Hynix official later explained that Kwak meant the company must check the market condition and supply and demand balance first for the outlook, not an indication of his worry for a downturn in the second half of next year.
SK Hynix reported 5.5 trillion won ($4.1 billion) in operating profit on record quarterly sales of 16.4 trillion won in the second quarter ended June this year.
Its quarterly operating profit exceeded 5 trillion won for the first time since 2018 during the so-called super cycle.
Korea’s No. 2 memory maker also boasted the best operating profit margin of 33% for the quarter, higher than 22.6% of Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor division.
By Jeong-Soo Hwang
hjs@hankyung.com
Sookyung Seo edited this article.
