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SK Hynix CEO emphasizes readiness for increased competition and new semiconductor challenges
Friday, January 2, 2026 at 01:24 AM
The CEO of SK Hynix addressed the company regarding increasing competition and the need to pursue new technological and market challenges in the semiconductor industry.
Context
SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung opened 2026 by urging the company to embrace "new challenges" as competition in the AI memory sector reaches a fever pitch. This follows the firm’s announcement that its entire production capacity for DRAM, NAND, and High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) is already sold out through 2026. Driven by the global AI infrastructure surge, SK Hynix remains a primary supplier for Nvidia, recently posting a record quarterly operating profit of 11.4 trillion won.
While SK Hynix currently controls roughly 60% of the HBM market, it faces mounting pressure from Samsung and Micron. To secure its dominance, the company is fast-tracking HBM4 mass production for February 2026 to align with Nvidia's next-generation GPU architecture. The CEO’s emphasis on readiness highlights a strategic shift where memory is a vital AI asset requiring massive capital and technical precision to navigate the ongoing "memory super-cycle."
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