SK Hynix’s Record $60.5 Trillion Profit Triggers a 9.6% Sell-Off as the Market Demands More
Published on 07/29/2026 at 21:02 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
The arithmetic of modern markets can be brutal: deliver the best quarterly results in your company’s history, and watch your stock get hammered for it. That was the reality facing SK Hynix on Wednesday, when the South Korean memory-chip giant reported a staggering 557% surge in operating profit to 60.54 trillion won — only to see its shares tumble 9.61% to 1,401,000 won.
The disconnect stems from a simple mismatch between record numbers and even loftier expectations. Analysts had penciled in operating profit of roughly 64 trillion won on revenue of about 84 trillion won. SK Hynix delivered 79.32 trillion won in sales, a 256.8% year-on-year jump, but that still fell short of the consensus. The market punished the gap mercilessly.
Revenue growth was powered by a 30% sequential increase in average DRAM selling prices and a mid-double-digit percentage rise for NAND chips. Net profit exploded 1,242.5% to 93.92 trillion won, though that figure was juiced by a one-time gain of 63.27 trillion won from the sale of the company’s Kioxia stake. Strip that out, and the underlying picture remains robust: operating margins hit 76%, and SK Hynix ended the quarter with 88 trillion won in cash and a net cash position of 69.4 trillion won.
A Market in Panic Mode
Wednesday’s sell-off did not happen in a vacuum. The entire South Korean equity market was in meltdown. The Kospi index closed 5.98% lower at 5,663.24 points, triggering a trading halt, after already losing roughly 11% the previous day. The index now sits 39.7% below its June 19 peak, and the July rout has surpassed the monthly losses seen during the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s. Finance officials publicly apologized for the role of leveraged single-stock ETFs in amplifying the sell-off. Samsung Electronics, the country’s other heavyweight, fell 5.23%.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying SK Hynix?
Foreign investors have been pulling capital out, while domestic institutions have stepped in as buyers. For SK Hynix, the broader market chaos means that even a historic profit print cannot calm nerves. The stock has now lost 23.44% in the past seven trading sessions alone and sits 53.10% below its 52-week high of 2,987,000 won.
Adding to the anxiety was the Shanghai IPO of Chinese memory maker CXMT, which raised roughly $9.8 billion. Investors worry that cheaper Chinese alternatives could eventually squeeze margins for established players like SK Hynix, even if the immediate threat remains distant.
A $31 Billion Bet on the Future
SK Hynix’s management pushed back hard against the notion that the AI chip boom has peaked. During the earnings call, the company announced it would lift capital expenditure this year to the high-40-trillion-won range — roughly $31 billion and more than 50% above last year’s 30.2 trillion won. The money is earmarked for the M15X fab expansion and the Yongin cluster, where mass production of HBM4 memory chips began in the second quarter. Samples of the next-generation HBM4E have already been shipped to customers, with volume production slated for 2027 and Nvidia among the likely buyers.
To underpin that spending, SK Hynix has signed long-term supply agreements with roughly ten customers, spanning three to five years and backed in some cases by customer prepayments. The company also pointed to a massive partnership between its parent SK Group and Nvidia, reportedly valued at over $500 billion. Management expects continued high bit growth in the second half of the year and dismissed speculation that AI-related demand is fading.
Analysts Split on Where the Stock Goes Next
The analyst community is deeply divided. DS Investment & Securities maintained a buy rating with a price target of 3.1 million won, arguing there is no sign of oversupply in the memory market. At the opposite end, BNK Investment Securities slashed its target to 1.48 million won, citing risks of a glut. Mirae Asset cut its target from 4.2 million to 2.8 million won. Most houses still have targets well above the current share price, but the dispersion reflects genuine uncertainty about whether the AI capex cycle can sustain its current pace.
SK Hynix at a turning point? This analysis reveals what investors need to know now.
Technically, the stock looks oversold: the relative strength index sits at 33.2, while annualized 30-day volatility has surged past 123%. Yet the same technical indicators highlight just how violent the reversal has been. For all the pain of recent weeks, SK Hynix shares are still up 115.64% year-to-date — a reminder of the extraordinary rally that preceded the correction.
For the third quarter, the company guided for DRAM shipments to rise roughly 10% sequentially, with NAND growth in the low single digits. Whether that trajectory is enough to reassure investors worried about peak AI demand, Chinese competition, and a broader market rout remains the central question. The company’s finance department said it is reviewing additional shareholder returns, but for now, the market is focused on whether SK Hynix’s massive bet on HBM4 will pay off in the quarters ahead.
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