SK Hynix Stated 2026 Will Be Full In Memory Production; AI Boom Is The Reason
SK Hynix affirmed that the production capacity for its DRAM, NAND, and High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) is completely sold out until 2026. The ramping demand emanates overwhelmingly from partners such as Nvidia, which uses the company's HBM to power its industry-leading AI accelerators, the H100 and B200.
Financial Performance and Ascent
The AI demand drove SK Hynix to the strongest Q3 ever in its corporate history in 2025, reaching $8 billion (₩11.4 trillion), an increase of 62% year-on-year for operating profit. Revenue growth of 39% to ₩22.4 trillion came mainly from sales of HBM3E chips to Nvidia. The results further elevated SK Hynix to the pinnacle of the market, with research house TrendForce estimating a global HBM market control of over 50%, far ahead of competition from Samsung and Micron.
Tight Supply Situation and Market Distortion
The excessive focus on HBM production is creating a huge supply shortage in the entire memory market. According to Morgan Stanley's analysis, SK Hynix is now critically low on its stocks:
- DRAM (DDR5) Inventory: Reduced to around two weeks, described as effective "produce-and-ship" level.
- NAND Inventory: Close to four weeks to five weeks of supply.
The situation is creating ripple effects. The huge demand for HBM is using up a large share of global memory wafer capacity, pinching the production of other critical memory types such as DDR5 and LPDDR5X, the same ones that are used from servers to smartphones. The reduced supply is already pushing out lead times and putting price pressures. This was echoed by Xiaoniu President Lu Weibing who pointed out that the "rise of storage costs is much higher than expected and will continue to increase."
Future Hopes: HBM4 and Further Demand
The demand for high-performance memory is not likely to lie low. SK Hynix plans to ramp up production of its next-generation HBM4 memory by late 2025 to power the anticipated AI processors'. Additionally, the company entered a significant supply agreement with OpenAI for the ambitious Stargate supercomputer project-the sole project that promises to more than double the total HBM requirement of the industry.
"We've sold out our DRAM, NAND, and HBM capacity for next year," confirmed Kim Kyu-hyun, head of DRAM marketing at SK Hynix, "and the production slots for 2026 are already being filled up."
Source: SK Hynix
