SK Hynix, Samsung, Kioxia to Release Earnings Next Week: Can Memory Trio Calm AI Overheating Concerns?

South Korean memory giants SK Hynix (SK Hynix) and Samsung Electronics (Samsung Electronics), along with Japanese peer Kioxia (Kioxia Holdings), are set to release their earnings next week, serving as a crucial indicator of investor confidence in memory chip demand.

The South Korean stock market has now become a barometer of global AI investment sentiment, but with leveraged funds heavily betting, the market is experiencing violent fluctuations. At the same time, the market is increasingly concerned about the volatility risk brought by the overheated rally in AI themes, such as Kioxia's market value being halved in just a few weeks.

HSBC analysts pointed out that the continuous rise in the price of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), as well as the start of shipments of the AI key product HBM4, will support the performance of Samsung and SK Hynix, helping to ease market concerns about a slowdown in profit growth in the second half of the year.

SK Hynix will announce its earnings next Wednesday (29th). The company is continuing to benefit from the rise in average selling prices of DRAM and NAND. Since these two products are essential memory components for AI investment, it is estimated that related business revenue is expected to achieve the fastest growth rate since at least 2010.

SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-Jung expects that under the surge in AI demand, memory supply shortages may continue until after 2030. The company also announced on Wednesday to limit the number of Korean stocks converted into American Depositary Receipts (ADR).

Samsung Electronics will announce its full second-quarter earnings next Thursday. According to the preliminary earnings released earlier this month, the operating profit for the quarter was 89.4 trillion won (approximately $61 billion), about 6% higher than market estimates. However, the stock price plummeted by more than 7%, as investors considered that the stock price had already surged significantly, but were concerned that AI infrastructure investment would be difficult to recover, triggering selling pressure after the good news.

Kioxia will announce its earnings next Friday, with second-quarter earnings estimated to double from the previous quarter. This NAND flash memory giant once briefly became Japan's top stock in June, but in July, volatility intensified, and the stock price was halved at one point.

However, Wall Street and multiple Japanese securities firms remain bullish, even raising target prices. Analysts unanimously believe that the company's fundamentals have not deteriorated, and this correction mainly reflects market sentiment and technical selling pressure, rather than a reversal of industry trends.

Bloomberg Intelligence (BI) also pointed out that since the construction of new memory wafer fabs takes many years, the severe imbalance between supply and demand may continue until 2028 or even longer. It is estimated that NAND prices will rise by more than 300% in 2026, and there is still room for further increases in 2027.