SK Hynix Announces 100 Trillion Won Shareholder Return Plan; Memory Shortage to Persist Until 2030

Odaily Report: SK Hynix (SKHY.O) reported quarterly profit growth of more than 7x year-over-year and announced an additional shareholder return plan worth 100 trillion Korean won (approximately $75 billion) for 2026. The company reported operating profit of 83.3 trillion won for the quarter ended September (expected 76.7 trillion won), with revenue rising to 104.6 trillion won (expected 98.3 trillion won), both marking record highs for a single quarter. Driven by supply constraints, the company's operating margin remains at historically high levels. The company said Wednesday that it expects the memory chip supply shortage to persist until 2030. On the other hand, the company's analysis suggests that the increasing technical difficulty of advanced processes and the considerable time required to build new semiconductor fabs are limiting supply expansion. The company expects that in the near term, enterprise and consumer adoption of artificial intelligence will drive memory demand, while in the medium to long term, physical AI applications such as autonomous driving and robotics will become the driving force behind demand growth. (Jinshi)