Chipmaker SK Hynix reported its first quarterly operating profit in more than a year as it benefited from booming demand for high-end artificial intelligence memory chips.
The South Korean company, which supplies the “high bandwidth memory” chips used in Nvidia’s H100 graphics processing units, posted an operating profit of Won346bn ($260mn) in the three months to December 31, outstripping analysts’ expectations compiled by LSEG SmartEstimates of a Won192bn loss.
That compares with a Won1.9tn operating loss in the fourth quarter of 2022, and a Won1.8tn operating loss in the third quarter of 2023, illustrating the global memory sector’s recovery after a year-long supply glut.