SEOUL: South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix has posted another record profit as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) drives sales of advanced memory chips.
The company yesterday reported an operating profit of 60.6 trillion won (US$41.6 billion) for the April-to-June quarter, up 557 per cent from a year earlier and the highest figure in its history.
The main driver has been strong demand for cuttingedge memory chips used in AI applications.
SK Hynix is one of the world’s leading suppliers in the sector, with United States (US) technology giant Nvidia among its key customers.
Despite the strong secondquarter results, the company fell slightly short of the market’s lofty expectations, with both revenue and operating profit coming in just below forecasts from many analysts.
The market reaction was mixed.
SK Hynix shares rose 1.5 per cent around half an hour after trading began, but recovered only a small part of the nearly 15 per cent slump recorded the previous day amid weakness in US technology stocks.
Investors worldwide are concerned that the AI boom could lose momentum, slowing growth in demand for high-performance memory chips. – BERNAMA
