SK Hynix's HBM Output Is Spoken For Years in Advance as Clients Turn Co-Investors

SK Hynix confirms 2026 HBM capacity fully sold, with supply crunch extending into 2027. Nvidia accounts for 15% of revenue as operating margins soar to 76%.

The scarcity of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) has become so acute that some of the world’s largest technology companies are now helping to finance the very factories that produce it. SK Hynix, the South Korean chipmaker at the center of the boom, has confirmed that its entire HBM capacity for 2026 is already booked solid — and the supply crunch is expected to stretch deep into 2027. In an unusual move, major tech groups are actively pushing to underwrite production lines and lock in future allotments, underscoring how critical these chips have become for the artificial intelligence infrastructure race.

One client stands out above all others. Nvidia accounts for roughly 15% of SK Hynix’s revenue, a share that underscores the symbiotic relationship between the two companies. The first quarter of 2026 delivered record numbers: sales hit around 52.5 trillion won, propelled by the insatiable demand for the high-performance memory that powers modern AI servers. The result is a near-complete sellout of manufacturing capacity for the year, with analysts warning that the shortage will persist well beyond 2027 and keep both prices and margins elevated.

That margin picture is already striking. Market observers have sharply lifted their forecasts, now expecting an operating margin of nearly 76% for the current fiscal year — a dramatic leap from the roughly 49% recorded the year before. The profit bonanza is also feeding through to shareholders. Dividends are expected to climb, with projections pointing to a payout of 15,000 won per share, a significant increase that reflects the company’s swelling cash flows.

At its peak, SK Hynix’s stock had surged around 191% from the start of the year, according to one tally, before a new record high of 1,976,000 won was set on Wednesday. That milestone represented a year-to-date gain of roughly 168% from the start of 2026. But the run-up proved too tempting for some investors. On Thursday, profit-taking knocked nearly 8% off the share price, sending it to 1,819,000 won. The long-term uptrend remains intact as long as chart support holds, though the pullback was sharp enough to erase a portion of the year’s spectacular gains.

To meet the unrelenting demand, SK Hynix is ploughing capital into its manufacturing base. In August, construction begins on the second phase of its first fabrication facility in the planned semiconductor cluster in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. The total investment for the site is pegged at roughly 31 trillion won — around $20.8 billion — with four production plants eventually planned, surrounded by an ecosystem of materials suppliers and equipment makers. The sheer scale of the outlay reflects both the opportunity and the urgency.

Meanwhile, the company is also exploring next-generation packaging technology. Reports indicate SK Hynix is testing Intel’s EMIB, a 2.5D interconnection method that allows multiple chips to be packed tightly together. The approach is still in the trial phase, with suitable materials for mass production still being sourced. On the product roadmap, samples of the next HBM generation, HBM4E, are slated for delivery in the second half of this year, with mass production targeted for 2027 — just as demand for AI accelerators is expected to intensify further.

All these developments are pushing SK Hynix toward a landmark valuation. The company’s market capitalisation is within striking distance of $1 trillion, a threshold few South Korean companies have ever approached. The shares currently trade near 1,970,000 won, just below the recent 52-week high, and the distance to the 50-day moving average — more than 70% above it — illustrates how steep the ascent has been. Brokerages remain bullish, forecasting rising average selling prices for DRAM products in the current quarter and sustained operating strength through 2027. For now, the combination of client-funded fabs, locked-in capacity, and sky-high margins appears to justify every dollar of that trillion-dollar price tag.