SK Hynix Puts Its $26.5 Billion Nasdaq Windfall Behind a DDR5 Pivot – HBM4 Can Wait
Published on 07/11/2026 at 19:24 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
The calculus around SK Hynix’s priorities just shifted sharply. In a move that prioritises near-term profit over next-generation bragging rights, South Korea’s memory chip titan is deliberately slowing the ramp-up of HBM4 production in order to churn out more of the commodity DRAM chips that are currently minting money. The decision comes barely a week after its record-breaking $26.5 billion Nasdaq listing handed the company a war chest ample enough to fund both agendas.
Mass production of HBM4, the sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory that powers Nvidia’s AI accelerators, will now kick off in earnest only in the third quarter of 2026, according to industry forecaster TrendForce. Supplies originally earmarked for the upgrade from HBM3E to HBM4 are being redirected to conventional DDR5 lines instead. The full-year volume forecast for HBM4 has been trimmed from 4.5 billion to 4 billion gigabit.
The logic is brutally financial. Analysts estimate that SK Hynix’s operating margin on DDR5 will approach 90% this year — comfortably above what an accelerated HBM4 transition could deliver. Contract prices for DDR5 memory surged 90% to 95% in the first quarter of 2026 compared with the previous three months. The company’s own quarterly report confirms that the average selling price for DRAM as a whole jumped by a mid-range 60% in the same stretch.
That pricing power flowed straight into a record quarter. SK Hynix posted first-quarter 2026 revenue of 52.5763 trillion won — the first time it has ever breached the 50 trillion won mark in a single quarter. Operating profit came in at 37.6103 trillion won, yielding a record operating margin of 72%. With the entire 2026 production run of HBM already sold out before the year began, pushing HBM4 forward would have delivered little extra revenue while DDR5 margins screamed for capacity.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying SK Hynix?
The fresh capital from New York gives SK Hynix ample room to build the new factories and buy the ASML EUV lithography machines needed to address that demand. The company raised $26.5 billion on Friday through American Depositary Receipts that surged between 13% and 17% on their first day, with investor demand outstripping supply sevenfold. The listing ranks as the second-largest US IPO ever, trailing only SpaceX.
On the Korea Exchange, however, the response was more measured. SK Hynix’s common shares closed Friday at 2,180,000 won, shedding 0.27% on the day and 10.1% for the week. That weekly loss mirrors the news on the HBM4 delay, but context matters: the stock has still more than tripled year-to-date with a 222% gain, and it trades 343.5% above the 52-week low of 491,500 won set in October 2025. The 14-day relative strength index of 46.1 suggests the pullback has simply erased overbought conditions, not triggered a rout.
Neither of SK Hynix’s top executives sees the capacity crunch easing anytime soon. CEO Kwak Noh-Jung has warned that shortages could persist through the end of this decade and beyond, with 2027 looking particularly tight. Chairman Chey Tae-won amplified that message in March, citing a global wafer deficit of over 20% that he expects to last until at least 2030, given that new fabrication plants take four to five years to come online.
SK Hynix at a turning point? This analysis reveals what investors need to know now.
The M15X expansion in South Korea and Micron’s Idaho facility are not expected to deliver meaningful volumes until mid-2027 at the earliest. Samsung’s new Pyeongtaek plant, meanwhile, is slated for 2028. In the near term, SK Hynix’s willingness to trade HBM4 bragging rights for DDR5 profits looks less like a gamble and more like a rational stacking of priorities — backed by the deepest pockets it has ever had.
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SK Hynix Stock: New Analysis - 11 July
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