SK Hynix Posts Record Q1 2026 Earnings — Revenue Up 198% as HBM Demand Drives $38.9B Quarter

SK Hynix reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of 52.58 trillion won ($38.9 billion), up 198% year-over-year — a record high driven by surging demand for High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) in AI data centers and rising DRAM prices across the board. Operating profit reached 37.61 trillion won ($27.8 billion), nearly five times higher than a year earlier, with an all-time high operating margin of 72%. The results were reported on April 23, 2026 and covered by CNBC, which noted the results came in broadly in line with analyst estimates despite the scale of the beat versus prior-year comparisons.

SK Hynix remains the world's dominant supplier of HBM, holding approximately 57–62% market share against Samsung and Micron. The company attributed the record quarter to expanded AI infrastructure investments by hyperscalers and major cloud providers, even during a period that is typically a seasonal downturn for memory. SK Hynix stated in its earnings release: 'Despite the fact that first quarter is typically a seasonal downturn, strong demand persisted due to expanded investments in AI infrastructure.' The company's HBM3E products remain the primary memory solution for NVIDIA's Blackwell AI accelerators, and supply commitments with NVIDIA are understood to extend through at least mid-2027.

Looking ahead, SK Hynix confirmed plans to begin supplying HBM4E samples — its seventh-generation HBM product — in the second half of 2026, with mass production targeted for 2027. HBM4E will support higher bandwidth and lower power consumption compared to current HBM4, targeting NVIDIA's next-generation Rubin GPU platform and competing custom AI accelerators. The company also highlighted plans to invest 19 trillion won in a new domestic manufacturing plant in South Korea to expand long-term HBM production capacity. For investors and the broader semiconductor market, SK Hynix's record quarter reinforces that the AI memory supercycle shows no signs of slowing as of mid-2026.