SEOUL, July 26 (Yonhap) -- SK hynix Inc. is expected to post an all-time high operating profit of 64.1 trillion won (US$43.7 billion) in the second quarter, driven by its leadership in the high bandwidth memory (HBM) market amid an artificial intelligence (AI)-led semiconductor supercycle, a report showed Sunday.

A consensus estimate compiled by Yonhap Infomax from forecasts from 14 local brokerages showed SK hynix is expected to post 84.1 trillion won in sales and 64.1 trillion won in operating profit for the April-June period.

The figures would surpass the company's previous annual operating profit record of 47.2 trillion won in 2025.

The company's operating profit margin is expected to reach about 75-77 percent for the second quarter, compared with 75 percent in the first quarter.

The forecast is broadly in line with Samsung Electronics Co.'s second-quarter earnings guidance released earlier this month, which projected a record quarterly operating profit of 89.4 trillion won.

If SK hynix reports second-quarter earnings as projected on Wednesday, the country's two memory chipmakers are expected to post a combined operating profit of more than 150 trillion won.

Analysts attributed the strong quarterly earnings to rising memory chip prices and robust demand for HBM and solid-state drives (SSDs) used in AI data centers.

"Sales to global tech companies and AI data center operators are expected to account for 70 percent of SK hynix's total revenue in the second quarter," said Kim Dong-won, a researcher at KB Securities Co.

brk@yna.co.kr

(END)

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