SK Hynix's Profit Surges Sixfold but Falls Short of Expectations; Apple's Procurement from CXMT Still Awaiting Policy Signal

According to PolyBeats monitoring, in the prediction market Polymarket, the event "Will Apple purchase CXMT memory chips in 2026?" currently has a 41% probability of "Yes."

Today, SK Hynix announced a second-quarter revenue of 79.3 trillion Korean won, with an operating profit reaching a record-breaking 60.5 trillion Korean won, representing a year-on-year increase of 257% and 557%, respectively. LSEG SmartEstimate had previously anticipated an operating profit of 64 trillion Korean won. SK Hynix stated that delays in the shipment of some advanced products constrained the price increase of DRAM products. After the financial report was released, the company's stock price dropped by 10%.

Behind this strong but slightly below-expected financial report, the market's focus on the memory industry has shifted from short-term profitability to structural supply-demand changes: AI server demand continues to drive up long-term order visibility for HBM and high-end DRAM, but capacity expansion from Chinese manufacturers and customer diversions are reshaping the global supply landscape, leading major players to reprice risk in a high-demand, high-competition environment.

Apple is evaluating the inclusion of CXMT in its memory supply chain. The Financial Times reported on the 7th that Apple has begun testing CXMT's DRAM chips, with the related products planned for devices to be sold in China. On the 24th, The Wall Street Journal reported that Tim Cook and Apple executives proposed to the Trump administration to adopt CXMT and YMTC chips in products sold outside the United States. Meanwhile, Micron is lobbying the U.S. government to block this plan.

CXMT completed an $8.6 billion IPO on July 27, with the opening price on the first day surging by 466% from the IPO price, closing with a market value of approximately 3.3 trillion yuan, making it one of the largest semiconductor IPOs in Asia in recent years. The market generally believes that this financing will be mainly used for capacity expansion and advanced process research and development to address the surge in AI-driven memory demand.
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