SK hynix posted its best-ever quarterly results on surging demand tied to artificial intelligence chips, while Hyundai Motor saw profitability weaken despite higher sales. The contrast is deepening concerns that South Korea’s earnings are becoming more concentrated in semiconductors.
SK hynix said April 23 that its first-quarter revenue rose to 52.5763 trillion won and operating profit jumped to 37.6103 trillion won. That was up 198.1% and 405.5%, respectively, from a year earlier, marking record highs for a quarter. Its operating margin reached 72%, the company said.
The results were unusual for a seasonally slow period, helped by expanding AI infrastructure investment and a shift toward higher-value products. The boom may continue as AI demand broadens from training to real-time inference, strengthening the base for memory demand. Some analysts have projected SK hynix’s annual operating profit could top 200 trillion won, which would rank it fourth globally.
Hyundai Motor and Kia, however, showed weaker profitability even as sales grew. Hyundai’s first-quarter revenue rose 3.4% from a year earlier to 45.9389 trillion won, but operating profit fell 30.8% to 2.5147 trillion won. Ahead of Kia’s April 24 earnings release, the consensus estimate for its operating profit was 2.2986 trillion won, down about 24%.
The two automakers posted record sales in the U.S. market, but tariffs were seen as a major drag on earnings. Hyundai said it spent 860 billion won on tariff costs in the first quarter. Kia’s tariff costs were estimated at 500 billion to 700 billion won.
They also faced higher oil and raw-material prices linked to the Middle East war, a weaker won and other pressures. A fire at a parts supplier in Daejeon was reported to have disrupted production by about 30,000 vehicles, and Middle East risks added to logistics costs and weighed on the sales environment.
With autos, another core export industry, hit by worsening external conditions, the semiconductor-heavy profit structure in South Korean industry is becoming more pronounced.
Industry officials said the gap could signal a structural shift: semiconductors are moving into an era of outsized profits amid an AI-led reshaping of industry, while autos remain highly exposed to policy and cost variables.
Kim Pil-su, a professor in the Department of Future Automotive Engineering at Daelim University, said reliance on Samsung Electronics and SK hynix for AI semiconductors such as high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, is high, making the semiconductor tilt likely to persist for now. He added that tariff uncertainty for autos continues and geopolitical risks in the Middle East are growing.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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