SK Hynix unveils shareholder return plan worth $75 billion after posting 7-fold jump in Q3 profit

SEOUL, Oct 28 — South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix reported a more ​than seven-fold rise in quarterly operating profit to a record high on Wednesday, beating market forecasts, ‌as continued demand for AI infrastructure drove up memory chip prices.

The ⁠Nvidia supplier also said it ​will pursue shareholder returns ⁠totalling about 100 trillion won ($75.4 billion) this year, ‌comprising cash dividends ‌of 30 trillion won and share repurchases and ⁠cancellations of 60 trillion won, ⁠including 40 trillion won announced in August.

SK Hynix also reiterated that it expects demand to continue to exceed supply through 2030.

To improve mid-to-long term demand visibility, SK Hynix has signed long-term agreements (LTAs) with 14 ‌major customers, while "proactively discussing with ​a number of customers the possibility of extending the contract terms, which are typically five years."

"The LTA volume secured to date corresponds to more than 50% of total production capacity for 2027 and 2028," SK Hynix said.

SK Hynix reported operating profit of 83.3 ​trillion won for the July-September period, compared with 11.4 ‌trillion won a ‌year ⁠earlier.

That compared with the 76.7 trillion won LSEG SmartEstimate, which is weighted toward estimates from analysts who are more consistently accurate.

Quarterly revenue rose 328% to 104.6 trillion ‌won.

SK Hynix shares ​rose 2% in line with ‌the wider market's 2.2% ⁠gain.

($1 = ​1,326.0900 won)

(Reporting by Heekyong Yang and Joyce Lee; Editing by ​Christopher Cushing)

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