SK Hynix overtook its competitor Samsung Electronics in operating profit for the first time in 2025, to achieve a lead in high-bandwidth memory used in artificial intelligence chips.
The two memory makers of South Korea had a head-to-head battle this week as SK Hynix gave earnings on Wednesday and Samsung on Thursday morning local time.
SK Hynix recorded an all-time operating profit of 47.2 trillion won in the entire year against 43.6 trillion won for Samsung. The comparison highlights SK Hynix’s rise in the tech sector in South Korea, as it was purchased by SK Telecom at a price of approximately $3 billion in 2012.
SK Hynix specializes nearly solely in memory chips, whereas Samsung operates in various businesses, including consumer electronics and contract chip manufacturing. Samsung’s memory segment generated operating profits of about 24.9 trillion won in 2025.
The success of SK Hynix is in part due to its deep roots as the world leader in high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, a specialized chip employed in AI processors and servers like those manufactured by Nvidia.
MS Hwang, research director at Counterpoint Research, said, “SK Hynix is clearly an outstanding ‘AI Winner’ in Asia,” adding that its dominance in quality and provision of HBMs and other chips in AI servers has played a key role in the current wave of AI infrastructure expansion.
Hwang reported that SK Hynix has also retained its leadership in both markets, although Samsung reclaimed the lead in memory revenue rankings during the fourth quarter of 2025. Nonetheless, the intensity of competition is increasing.
Although SK Hynix was able to take an early lead in HBM and enjoyed the lion’s share of Nvidia memory contracts last year, other competitors such as Samsung and Micron have been able to make some breakthroughs.
Samsung has already increased its sales of HBM and indicated that it is still on schedule to start providing HBM4 products, the sixth generation of HBM technology, this year.
Ray Wang, an analyst at SemiAnalysis focused on memory and the AI supply chain, added, ″[W]e expect Samsung to show a significant turnaround with HBM4 for Nvidia’s new products, moving past last year’s quality issues.”
Therefore, the analysts project SK Hynix to retain high market share in HBM4 and maintain its dominant position. Wang stated, ″The HBM4 race is really between SK Hynix and Samsung as we think [the] two companies are more competitive than Micron.”
He added, “We expect SK Hynix to maintain its lead in HBM4, while Samsung to make material progress and become more competitive in HBM4 than [previous generations].”
