South Korea's SK Hynix Inc. announced a 62% surge in year-on-year profits and revealed that customers have secured its entire lineup of memory chip supplies for next year, underscoring how global AI infrastructure development is driving industry-wide demand.

The company posted a record operating profit of 11.4 trillion won (approximately $80 billion) in Q3, slightly exceeding analysts' average estimates, while sales climbed to 24.45 trillion won. As a key supplier of Nvidia's cutting-edge high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, SK Hynix confirmed it will begin supplying next-generation HBM4 chips this quarter after finalizing negotiations, though it did not disclose specific customer details.

In a statement, SK Hynix noted plans to expand production capacity next year, with orders for its full range of DRAM and NAND products already fully booked through 2026. According to data from the Korea Exchange, the company's shares rose as much as 4.1% in pre-market trading in Seoul on Wednesday morning.

Greg Roh, an analyst at Hyundai Motor Securities Co., stated, "Beyond demand from hyperscale data center operators and nations advancing sovereign AI initiatives, large-scale projects like OpenAI's 'Stargate' will further accelerate demand for high-bandwidth memory. This robust demand is likely to persist into next year." He added that surging AI demand is also boosting sales of enterprise-grade SSDs, a positive indicator for SK Hynix.