SK Hynix, the South Korean memory chip powerhouse, is projecting revenue of $231 billion this year, a figure that would represent a roughly 3.4x jump from its $67 billion haul last year. Those headline numbers deserve a healthy dose of scrutiny. The company’s trailing twelve-month revenue sits at approximately $68.72 billion, and its full-year 2025 revenue came in at roughly 97.147 trillion KRW, representing about 50% year-over-year growth. Market analysts have flagged the $231 billion projection as unverified.
The AI memory gold rush
SK Hynix’s Q1 2026 revenue landed around 52.58 trillion KRW, translating to roughly $35.5 to $38 billion depending on exchange rates. That nearly tripled year-over-year.
The catalyst is high-bandwidth memory, or HBM. These are the specialized chips that sit inside the AI accelerators powering everything from ChatGPT to autonomous driving systems. SK Hynix has positioned itself as the dominant supplier in this space. The company captured 62% of HBM shipments in Q2 2025 and held a 57% share of HBM revenue in Q3 2025. Its HBM sales more than doubled across 2025 as every major cloud provider and AI lab scrambled to secure supply.
HBM and related memory products are reportedly sold out for 2026, with tight supply conditions expected to persist into 2027.
