SK Hynix's earnings fell short of expectations. US stocks fell 9% after hours

On July 29, SK Hynix (SKHY.O) announced its financial results on Wednesday. Affected by technology giants 'increased investment in AI data centers and strong demand for advanced memory chips, the company's second-quarter operating profit surged 557% to 60.5 trillion won (approximately US$41.62 billion), setting a new record, compared with 9.2 trillion won in the same period last year. However, this figure was lower than the market expectation of 64 trillion won, mainly because its high-end memory chips (HBM) accounted for a higher proportion of its competitors, but failed to fully benefit from the strong price increase cycle of conventional memory chips in this round. This has exacerbated concerns that the AI boom that is driving the semiconductor industry may be slowing. SK Hynix's revenue also fell short of expectations. The financial report showed that its second-quarter revenue was 79 trillion won, and the market expectation was 84 trillion won. Affected by the financial report, SK Hynix once fell another 9% after hours after U.S. stocks closed down 9% on Tuesday. SanDisk (SNDK.O) and Micron Technology (MU.O) also fell more than 4%, erasing the boost brought by Seagate Technology (STX.O) earnings report. (Jin Shi)