RAM prices be damned, SK hynix’s record-breaking $55.6 billion quarter still failed to meet investors’ wild AI expectations
SK hynix, one of the ‘big three’ memory manufacturers, just shared its 2026 second quarter financial results, and its record-breaking revenue of 79.3 trillion won (roughly $55.6 billion) isn’t all good news. Despite continuing strong demand for memory from the AI industry, SK hynix has found itself missing investor expectations. Poor lamb.
SK hynix was forecast to cross a slightly more face-melting profit threshold of 84 trillion won (about $58 billion) by the end of June. Analysts attribute the miss to a slowing of HBM4 shipments, with revenue from those to be recorded next quarter instead. To be clear, the 79.3 trillion the company actually made is far from disastrous, and still represents a 257% year-over-year boost to quarterly revenue. However, missing the revenue forecast has manifested in a share slump of about 9.6%.
The stock itself has also halved in value (though that does mean it’s still up by 115% so far this year). Reuters further reflects that investors have been frustrated by SK hynix not detailing how they’ll benefit directly from the AI boom.
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But let me doff the stockbroker visor for a moment: it looks like investors may finally be getting the memo that big tech’s aggressive AI spending or its infrastructure build-out cannot last forever.
As for SK hynix itself, the company expects “the momentum in memory demand […] to persist.” Therefore, it’s moving to expand “multi-year contract discussions with customers to secure mid-to-long-term supply stability.” The company says its finalised long-term agreements (which typically run for five years) with 10 customers.
So, is the AI bubble finally popping? SK hynix doesn’t appear to think so. In fact, the company says it’s planning to raise capital spending to around 40 trillion won ($27.6 billion) this year in order to support the demand it anticipates. Little says ‘confident’ like many trillions of won—and such confidence can be one tactic deployed to guard against a further dip in share price.
As for PC gamers though, the memory supply crisis will continue to rage, driving up the price of RAM and SSDs with it (if you’re in the market for an upgrade, I collate the best SSD deals here). As for the wider consumer electronics industry, further price spikes from memory suppliers are on the way, but they may at least slow down in frequency—however, that’s because actual supply could drop by as much as 70% next year according to at least one prediction.
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