Key Highlights

● SK hynix reported a more than sevenfold jump in profit.

● Quarterly revenue topped 100 trillion won for the first time.

● The company expects the memory shortage to last into 2030.

● US memory stocks rallied in sympathy.

A record quarter from South Korea's SK hynix set off a rally in memory-chip stocks on Wall Street, as the company's US-listed shares soared and American memory makers followed them higher, with the rally sparked by the company reporting a more than sevenfold jump in profit.

The surge helped push the chip index to a fourth straight gain. SK hynix, one of the world's largest makers of memory chips, reported quarterly revenue topping 100 trillion won for the first time, roughly $78.7 billion, with operating profit of about $62.7 billion, an exceptionally wide margin.

Why One Company Moved a Whole Market

The company also announced a shareholder return plan and said it sees the memory shortage lasting into 2030, signals that demand for high-performance memory, essential for training and running AI models, remains far ahead of supply.

SK hynix is one of the heaviest weights in its home index, alongside Samsung Electronics, and a result this strong from a company of that size can move an entire market.

US Memory Stocks Followed

Micron Technology, the largest US memory maker, climbed strongly on the read-through, and Sandisk, which focuses on flash storage, posted one of the strongest gains among the group. Seagate, which makes hard drives, rose after reporting its own results.

Chip equipment makers joined in as well, with Lam Research and Applied Materials both climbing, as did Arm and AMD, though Nvidia was an exception, slipping during the session.