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SK Hynix's Record Quarter That Wasn't Enough SK Hynix just posted the best operating profit in its history and the stock sold off. That's the kind of quarter that says a lot about where we are in the AI memory cycle. Q2 numbers: operating profit up 557% year-on-year to 60.5T won, an all-time high. Sounds great. But the street was expecting 64T won, and revenue at 79T won also missed. When you set the bar at "generational AI buildout," clearing it halfway doesn't cut it. Here's the structural issue. Hynix leaned harder into HBM (High Bandwidth Memory for AI chips) than most peers. That positioning paid off during the AI boom. But conventional DRAM prices recovered sharply this cycle, and because Hynix had less conventional exposure, it captured less of that upside. Being the most AI-aligned memory maker has costs when the rest of the market bounces. Management pushed back hard on the reaction. No signs of AI spending slowdown. HBM4 is now shipping in volume. Supply agreements lock in five years out. That's the kind of forward visibility that doesn't come from bluffing. The market seemed to agree quickly: Hynix up ~4% and Samsung up ~6% in Seoul on July 29. The miss was priced in fast. My read: this is less about one quarter and more about whether HBM margins hold as competition intensifies. Hynix locked in the long game. Whether that trade pays depends on how aggressive the rest of the field gets on HBM4 pricing. Does HBM's lead hold, or does supply catch up faster than expected? Share your thoughts in the comments 👇