SK Hynix's record quarter shows AI demand turning memory into a contracted, supply-limited business

SK Hynix's third quarter suggests that, for now, the memory industry's familiar boom-and-bust pattern is giving way to something closer to a contracted, supply-constrained business. The South Korean chipmaker said on October 28 that quarterly revenue passed KRW100 trillion (US$75.38 billion) for the first time, rising 328% from a year earlier and 32% from the second quarter, with an operating margin of 80%. More telling than the record is how the company now describes its order book. Long-term agreements with 14 major customers already cover more than half of its production capacity for 2027 and 2028.