SK Hynix and Samsung Earnings Ahead! Will AI Drive Profits to New Heights? Semiconductor Stocks at a Critical Juncture

The semiconductor industry's earnings season is approaching, with markets closely watching the upcoming second-quarter results from South Korea's two major memory giants. SK Hynix (SKHY-US) is scheduled to release its financial report next Wednesday (29th), while Samsung Electronics will publish its full second-quarter results on Thursday (30th). The performance of these two industry leaders is seen as a key indicator for the future direction of semiconductor stocks.

According to industry analysis cited by South Korean media on Sunday (26th), SK Hynix's second-quarter operating profit is forecast to reach 64.1 trillion Korean won—equivalent to over 1 trillion New Taiwan dollars—representing a nearly sixfold year-on-year increase and a more than 70% rise from the previous quarter.

If this estimate proves accurate, the company's quarterly profit alone would surpass its full-year 2025 record of 47.2 trillion won.

Consensus forecasts compiled by multiple South Korean brokerage firms project that the company's second-quarter revenue will be around 84.1 trillion won, with operating profit at 64.1 trillion won and operating margins climbing to approximately 75%–77%, up from 75% in the first quarter.

Samsung Electronics has already issued a preliminary earnings guidance, forecasting a second-quarter operating profit of 89.4 trillion won—also a record high for a single quarter. If both companies deliver results in line with expectations, their combined quarterly profit will exceed 150 trillion won.

Analysts attribute this profit surge primarily to rising memory prices, coupled with robust procurement demand from AI data centers for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and solid-state drives (SSDs).

A KB Securities analyst estimates that orders from global tech firms and AI data center operators will account for approximately 70% of SK Hynix's total revenue this quarter.

Notably, on the 25th, the South Korean presidential office revealed that, during the San Francisco AI summit, South Korean companies finalized semiconductor collaboration projects totaling $950 billion with several international tech giants.

Among these, the SK Group will partner with NVIDIA (NVDA-US) and others to establish a long-term high-end memory supply agreement worth $750 billion over the next five years. Samsung Electronics, meanwhile, signed a memorandum of understanding with Broadcom (AVGO-US) to collaborate on high-end memory supply and AI chip foundry services over the same period, with the deal valued at approximately $200 billion.

Additionally, South Korean firms have secured AI data center investment partnerships with overseas tech leaders, planning to build around 5 gigawatts of computing infrastructure and deploy approximately two million graphics processing units (GPUs).

In robotics and autonomous vehicles, the Hyundai Motor Group will collaborate with NVIDIA to develop a robot reference platform for use by universities and startups, while also announcing an OEM autonomous vehicle program with Waymo.

Samsung SDS has also signed a strategic partnership with Anthropic to jointly expand the AI market and cultivate engineering talent.

Kim Yong-hyup, head of the presidential policy office, reported that several global tech executives have urged the South Korean government to maintain its current AI policy momentum and accelerate the approval process for data center-related projects. President Lee Jae-myung responded that the government will prioritize the efficiency of advancing these initiatives.