SK Hynix's Q2 profit is expected to reach 60-70 trillion Korean won, with AI memory demand driving a new high.

BlockBeats News message, June 19 — Market analysts generally expect the company’s operating profit in Q2 2026 to be in the range of 60 trillion to 70 trillion Korean won, far above the record high of 37.6 trillion Korean won already set in Q1.

The Q1 financial report released in April shows that SK Hynix revenue reached 52.58 trillion Korean won, operating profit was 37.61 trillion Korean won, and the operating profit margin was as high as 72%, with both figures setting new quarterly records. Strong demand and price increases for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and high-end DRAM are the core drivers behind the performance surge. The company’s management said that the structural memory shortage brought by AI infrastructure will last at least three years.

Entering the second quarter, expectations of rising memory prices will further boost the profit outlook. Analysts expect contract prices for DRAM and NAND to rise another 50% to more than 70% quarter over quarter. Under a high-profit product mix, every incremental increase in prices has a highly significant leverage effect on SK Hynix. Current market consensus indicates that the median Q2 operating profit will be about 62 trillion to 64 trillion Korean won; some brokerages, such as Kiwoom Securities, have raised their forecasts to 70 trillion Korean won, while earlier consensus was only around 40 trillion Korean won. This optimistic outlook has already been reflected in the stock price.

So far this year, SK Hynix’s cumulative gain has exceeded 300%. By the end of May, its market value briefly surpassed $1 trillion, making it another Asian chip company—after Samsung Electronics—to join the “trillion-dollar club.” By comparison, the market has also raised expectations for Samsung Electronics’ memory business Q2 profit to the 70 trillion Korean won level, and the combined scale of industry profits contributed by these two Korean giants is expanding rapidly.

Despite uncertainties remaining around geopolitical factors and the pace of AI capital expenditures, HBM’s technical barriers and a long-term supply-demand mismatch give SK Hynix a clear advantage in the current memory upcycle. The company’s Q2 financial report is expected to be released in late July, at which point the market will test how fully these aggressive expectations are realized. For investors focused on AI themes, SK Hynix remains one of the most direct beneficiaries available right now.