SEOUL, Oct 28 (Reuters) - South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix reported a more than seven-fold rise in quarterly operating profit to a record high on Wednesday, beating market forecasts, as continued demand for AI infrastructure drove up memory chip prices.
The Nvidia supplier also said it will pursue shareholder returns totalling about 100 trillion won ($75.4 billion) this year, comprising cash dividends of 30 trillion won and share repurchases and cancellations of 60 trillion won, including 40 trillion won announced in August.
SK Hynix also reiterated that it expects demand to continue to exceed supply through 2030.
To improve mid-to-long term demand visibility, SK Hynix has signed long-term agreements (LTAs) with 14 major customers, while "proactively discussing with a number of customers the possibility of extending the contract terms, which are typically five years."
"The LTA volume secured to date corresponds to more than 50% of total production capacity for 2027 and 2028," SK Hynix said.
SK Hynix reported operating profit of 83.3 trillion won for the July-September period, compared with 11.4 trillion won a year earlier.
That compared with the 76.7 trillion won LSEG SmartEstimate, which is weighted toward estimates from analysts who are more consistently accurate.
Quarterly revenue rose 328% to 104.6 trillion won.
SK Hynix shares rose 2% in line with the wider market's 2.2% gain.
($1 = 1,326.0900 won)
(Reporting by Heekyong Yang and Joyce Lee; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
