SK Hynix's Record Quarter Meets a Split Verdict From Foreign and Domestic Money

SK Hynix finds itself caught between two opposing forces. On one side sits a third-quarter 2026 earnings report that would flatter almost any semiconductor maker. On the other, a steady exit by overseas investors and a US permitting bottleneck that is complicating the company's expansion blueprint.

The numbers first. Revenue for the three months came in at 104.6 trillion won, with operating profit of 83.3 trillion won and net income of 39.8 trillion won. Average selling prices rose markedly for both DRAM and NAND compared with the prior quarter, a tailwind the company expects to carry forward: DRAM bit shipments are guided to grow in the mid-twenty percent range sequentially in the current period, while NAND is seen up by a mid-single-digit percentage. Management also expects HBM4 to become the dominant standard from the fourth quarter onward.

Those figures have not been enough to keep international money onside. Foreign investors sold SK Hynix shares worth a net 5.4 trillion won over the past trading week, according to Korea Exchange data, cutting their stake to 48.27% on Friday — the lowest level since November 2021. The retreat was concentrated in the memory heavyweights: SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics together accounted for roughly 73% of net foreign selling on the Korean main board.

Domestic Buyers Step Into the Gap

Korean investors moved the other way. Retail traders picked up a net 2.2 trillion won of SK Hynix stock last week, and institutions added a further 1.4 trillion won. Buyers thus appeared on both flanks of the domestic investor base, offsetting the offshore outflow — a source of stability, provided the selling pressure from abroad eases.

Whether that happens hinges on whether confidence in the company's earnings outlook can rebuild fast enough to absorb the international withdrawal. For shareholders, the equation now runs on two tracks at once: business performance and a softening of foreign selling.

The stock itself has had a rough stretch. On Friday it dropped 10% amid a sector-wide AI selloff that media reports tied to worries about tighter US rules for AI data centres and their financing. Shares opened slightly weaker in Seoul today, though bargain hunting and a recovery in US chip stocks helped the broader Korean market claw back some of the prior week's losses.

A Buyback With a Broader Mandate

Against that market backdrop, SK Hynix's board approved the acquisition of 20 trillion won of its own shares on 28 October. The move sits inside a wider shareholder return plan: capital returns for fiscal 2026 are projected at around 100 trillion won in total, of which at least 30 trillion won is earmarked for cash dividends and at least 60 trillion won for buying back and cancelling stock.

Investment plans, however, are running into Washington. As Reuters reported on 3 November, US authorities had not yet granted the export licences SK Hynix requested for equipment at its Dalian plant. That has hampered Solidigm's plans to invest roughly $45 billion in two proposed NAND fabs in Marcy, New York, with negotiations reportedly still underway.

What a Durable Recovery Requires

Strategists are split on the conditions for a turnaround. NH Investment & Securities expects AI data centre buildouts to continue and to underpin memory demand — supportive for SK Hynix's sales outlook, as long as the investment projects proceed. Hana Securities points instead to narrowing risk premiums on US technology corporate bonds as the precondition for a market recovery, alongside confidence in earnings forecasts. For SK Hynix holders, the operational question of memory volumes and pricing is thus tied to financing sentiment across the tech sector.

The next sector catalyst arrives on 10 November with CoreWeave's quarterly report. Convincing demand signals, paired with a fading of foreign selling, would make the case for a sustainable rebound. Until then, domestic buying appetite remains the counterweight to the international capital exit.