SK hynix Holds 78th Annual General Meeting, “Pledging to Become a Global Top-Tier Company to Share Differentiated Value and Share Results with Shareholders”

SK hynix held its 78th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders on March 25 at the company’s Icheon Campus, sharing its record 2025 performance, business direction for 2026, and shareholder value enhancement plans.

Record results driven by AI memory

“In an unprecedented market growth environment, SK hynix achieved record-breaking performance by timely supplying products to our customer’s needs, leveraging the company’s technological edge,” SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-Jung said in his opening remarks as chair of the meeting. ”I’d like to express my gratitude to our employees and shareholders for their ‘One Team’ spirit.”

“SK hynix posted 97.1 trillion won in revenue and 47.2 trillion won in operating profit, representing growth of 1.5 times and twice year-on-year respectively” CEO Kwak explained, “this marks a second consecutive year of record results that further strengthened market confidence in the company’s growth trajectory.

Kwak attributed the strong performance mainly to three factors: increase in HBM (High Bandwidth Memory)¹sales, expansion of high-performance ∙ high-value DRAM share, and restructuring of the NAND portfolio.

“HBM revenue doubled year-on-year, underpinned by the company’s overwhelming market share which solidified its leadership in the AI memory market” Kwak noted. ”At the same time, SK hynix expanded its portfolio of high-performance ∙ high-value DRAM products to deliver all-time-high DRAM revenue and operating profit, while diversifying its NAND portfolio toward high-value solutions such as eSSD (enterprise SSD) to achieve the company’s highest-ever annual NAND revenue” Kwak added.

CEO Kwak also highlighted key technology milestones, including the ▲establishment of a mass production system for HBM4, ▲full-scale mass production of 1cnm process, or the sixth-generation of the 10-nanometer technology (1c²) with enhanced performance and cost competitiveness, ▲development of the industry-leading 256GB DDR5 RDIMM, and ▲development of the world’s tallest 321-layer QLC³ NAND as well as next-generation storage through global collaboration.

¹HBM (High Bandwidth Memory): A high-performance, high-value memory that vertically stacks multiple DRAM chips to increase capacity and significantly improve data processing speed. The technology has evolved through successive generations — HBM, HBM2, HBM2E, HBM3, HBM3E, and HBM4.
²1c: The 10 nm process technology has progressed through six generations: 1x, 1y, 1z, 1a, 1b, and 1c.
³QLC (Quad-Level Cell): NAND flash is classified based on how many data bits can be stored in one cell, the smallest unit of storage. NAND flash is categorized as single-level cell (SLC), multi-level cell (MLC), triple-level cell (TLC), QLC, and penta-level cell (PLC).

Accelerating the full-stack AI memory vision

Looking ahead to 2026, SK hynix predicted that demand for not only HBM but also AI DRAM and NAND to increase in line. To capture this growth, the company plans to pursue four strategic priorities: ▲to advance as ‘Full Stack AI Memory Creator’, ▲maximize production through Operation Improvement(O/I), ▲systematically build production infrastructure, and ▲broaden the AI ecosystem.

“The company will flawlessly prepare HBM4, HBM4E and customized cHBM (Custom HBM) and strengthen our market leadership with AI DRAM and AI NAND, including products such as SOCAMM2⁴, GDDR7⁵, DDR5, and high-capacity eSSD” Kwak said. “SK hynix will also preemptively secure next-generation portfolios including PIM⁶ (Processing-In-Memory), CXL⁷ (Compute Express Link)-based solutions, and HBF⁸ (High Bandwidth Flash) in advance, aiming to evolve into a Full Stack AI Memory Creator that proposes solutions beyond what customers expect.”

Furthermore, Kwak stated that SK hynix will apply AI across manufacturing to enhance efficiency and quality competitiveness, while diversifying production bases with the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster, Cheongju P&T7, and the Advanced Packaging Plant in the U.S. to secure global manufacturing competiveness covering both front-end and back-end processes. He added that the company will establish an AI company in the U.S. to proactively pursue preemptive investments and new business opportunities.

⁴SOCAMM2 (Small Outline Compression Attached Memory Module2): An AI server–optimized memory module based on low-power DRAM.
⁵GDDR7: 7th generation graphics memory products that support GPUs to operate fast and efficiently
⁶Processing-In-Memory (PIM): A next-generation memory technology that integrates computational capabilities into memory, addressing data movement bottlenecks in AI and big data processing.
⁷Compute Express Link (CXL): A next-generation interface that efficiently connects CPU, GPU, memory, and other components in high-performance computing systems to support massive, ultra-fast computation. Based on the PCIe interface, CXL allows fast data transfer and has pooling capabilities to efficiently utilize memory.
⁸High Bandwidth Flash (HBF): A new memory layer between ultra-fast memory, HBM and high-capacity storage device, SSD. HBF technology can fill the gap between HBM’s high performance and SSD’s high capacity and ensure both capacity expansion and power efficiency required for AI inferencing.

Implementing 14.3 trillion won shareholder returns while maintaining expansion policy for 2026

SK hynix also outlined its shareholder return strategy at the meeting. Based on its 2025 results, the company has implemented a shareholder return program totaling 14.3 trillion won through additional dividends and the cancellation of treasury shares.

“Taking into account our performance and cash flow, SK hynix plans to continue reviewing dividends and share repurchases this year with the aim of further expanding shareholder returns,” Kwak said.

“At the same time, the company will work to secure 100 trillion won in net cash over the long term to enhance our financial soundness, and maintain a balanced approach between strengthening our balance sheet and returning capital to shareholders to maximize shareholder value.”

Kwak concluded by reaffirming the company’s long-term ambition: “As a Full Stack AI Memory Creator, SK hynix will be a partner that works with our customers to understand their challenges and solve them in creative ways, and become a global top-tier company that contributes to sustainable societal progress,” he said.

“We will continue to create differentiated value and share the results with our shareholders.”

The 78th Annual General Meeting was attended by shareholders, inside and outside directors, and members of management. All agenda items on the table were approved, which included approval of the financial statements, the election of inside and outside directors and other non-executives, the appointment of audit committee members, and approval of plans for the holding and disposal of treasury shares.