(LEAD) SK hynix turns to black in Q2 on robust AI chip sales

SK hynix Inc. said Thursday it shifted to a profit in the second quarter on solid sales of its premium artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips. The world's second-largest memory chipmaker posted an operating profit of 5.46 trillion won (US$3.95 billion) for the April-June period, compared with a loss of 2.88 trillion won a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing. It marked the largest quarterly operating profit since the third quarter of 2018, when SK hynix reported 6.47 trillion won in operating profit. Its revenue surged 124.8 percent to a record 16.42 trillion won, while its net profit reached 4.12 trillion won, shifting from a loss of 2.98 trillion won a year earlier. The earnings beat market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 3.85 trillion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency. SK hynix attributed the strong bottom line to demand for AI memory chips, including high bandwidth memory products and embed ded solid state drives, and a rebound in prices of NAND flash memory. Source: Yonhap News Agency