SK Hynix just posted a 76% operating margin and it’s reshaping the memory chip race

Operating margins above 70% are the kind of numbers that make investors do a double-take. SK Hynix just reported a 76% operating margin for Q2 2026, up from 41% a year earlier, on the back of an AI-driven memory boom that is rewriting what profitability looks like in the semiconductor industry. The company’s operating profit hit 60.54 trillion won, roughly $41.7 billion, a 557% year-over-year increase. How a chip company prints 83% gross margins The short version: high-bandwidth memory. SK Hynix commands approximately 58% of the global HBM market, compared to Micron’s 21%. HBM is the specialized memory that sits directly on AI accelerator chips, and every major AI data center build-out needs it in quantity. SK Hynix’s gross margin for the quarter came in at 83%, a figure more commonly associated with software businesses than factories that smelt silicon wafers. The previous quarter, Q1 2026, was not exactly a slow warmup either. Revenue reached 52.58 trillion won, with an operating margin of 72% and operating profit of 37.61 trillion won. Even with those numbers, SK Hynix slightly missed some analyst forecasts, which illustrates the strange position the company now occupies: a busi...