By Kwanwoo Jun


SK Hynix returned to a net profit in the first quarter after a five-quarter losing streak, continuing to ride the artificial-intelligence boom that boosts demand for more advanced and high-end memory chips.

Net profit for the quarter ended in March was 1.917 trillion Korean won ($1.39 billion) compared with net loss of KRW2.585 trillion in the same quarter a year earlier, the South Korean memory-chip maker said Thursday.

That beat a FactSet-compiled consensus forecast for net profit of KRW1.063 trillion.

Revenue during the quarter more than doubled to a record high of KRW12.43 trillion, while operating profit came in at KRW2.886 trillion.

The company attributed the strong quarterly results to increased sales of its high bandwidth memory and other advanced chips for AI data servers.

SK Hynix said its previously loss-making NAND-chip business swung to profit on brisk sales of premium products amid higher prices in the first quarter.

The company expects the overall memory-chip market to be on a steady growth path in the coming months, as demand for AI chips continues to rise.


Write to Kwanwoo Jun at kwanwoo.jun@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-24-24 2008ET