SK hynix reports highest-ever yearly earnings for 2024, all thanks to HBM and the AI boom

SK hynix has announced its highest-ever profits in 2024, riding off of the AI demand wave with its market-leading HBM memory.

2

The South Korean memory giant posted its best-ever yearly earnings in 2024, with 66.1 trillion won ($46.1 billion USD or so) in sales, with revenues increased by a huge 102% thanks to huge HBM memory sales for AI chips. SK hynix celebrated the record-high milestone with distributed bonuses of 1500% worth of what it defines as base pay, which works out to around 75% of the annual salary for an employee at SK hynix.

SK hynix had operating profits of 23.4 trillion won (around $16.3 billion USD or so) which beat the previous record of 20.8 trillion won (around $14.5 billion USD or so).

• Read more: SK hynix posts record-high Q3 2024 profit, 'explosive' demand of HBM, eSSDs

However, SK hynix labor union isn't happy with the news, claiming that the company had discarded the prior agreement to distribute 10% of operating profits to employees. SK hynix labor union said in a statement: "We strongly condemn the company for dismissing the agreement with the labor union and unilaterally paying (smaller) incentives on Jan. 24".

Kim Woohyun, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at SK hynix said: "With significantly increased portion of high value-added products, SK hynix has built fundamental to achieve sustainable revenues and profits even in times of market correction. While maintaining the profitability-first commitment, the company will make flexible investment decisions in line with market situation".

• Read more: SK hynix has major HBM order to Broadcom: AI chips for Google, Meta
• Read more: SK hynix unveils industry's first 16-Hi HBM3E memory: up to 48GB per stack
• Read more: SK hynix boss: NVIDIA CEO asked him to speed-up HBM4 chips by 6 months
• Read more: SK hynix posts record-high Q3 2024 profit, 'explosive' demand of HBM, eSSDs
• Read more: SK hynix exec: advanced semiconductor packaging 'may determine the survival of companies'