SKHY · Forward model · Bull case
The Bull case, 20 quarters out
Each segment is projected from its own operating driver, rolled up into consolidated cash flow, and discounted back to a fair value per share. The assumptions below are editable — change them and every number on this page moves with them.
Quarters are calendar quarters, the way SK hynix reports them: 2026 Q2 is the three months ended 30 June 2026, reported 29 July 2026. SK hynix reports ONE segment - 'as revenue from the semiconductor segment exceeds 90% of the Company's total revenue, its business is presented as a single semiconductor segment' - but every quarterly, half-year and annual filing carries a revenue-by-product note splitting revenue into DRAM, NAND Flash and Others. Those three lines are this model, and nothing finer. HBM is 56.4% of a market SK hynix leads and it appears in no revenue table in any filing, so there is no HBM vertical here; inventing one would be manufacturing the most important number on the page. Fourteen quarters of history, 2023 Q1 to 2026 Q2, sum to reported consolidated revenue in every quarter, and to $52.06bn (W79,318,746m) in the basis quarter. Eleven of the fourteen are read from a disclosed three-month column; the three December quarters are derived as full year minus nine months and are the only points marked estimated - each still ties to the quarterly release total (W11.31tn for 4Q23, W19.77tn for 4Q24, W32.83tn for 4Q25). Currency: the company files in won and this model runs in USD at a FIXED W1,523.5, the rate the stored series was built on, so quarters stay constant-currency. The market price it is measured against embeds a spot rate near W1,382, about 10% stronger, and the ADS at $158.02 sits about 26.5% above the Seoul common line translated at that spot - both gaps are real and neither is modelled away. Volume is an INDEX, not a bit count: SK hynix discloses only quarter-on-quarter percentage changes in shipments, never absolute bits, so units are set to 100 at 2026 Q2 and the price per index point is that quarter's revenue divided by 100. Read the unit traces as relative volume and relative ASP. No product-level margin, capex or capacity is disclosed anywhere, so the 81.4% basis EBITDA margin is the consolidated figure (operating profit W60,542,608m plus D&A W4,028,246m over revenue) applied to both memory lines, and the terminal margins - 45% for DRAM, 30% for NAND, 15% for Others - are assumptions about a mid-cycle, not disclosures. Because that margin is already after SG&A, corporate overhead is set to zero rather than charged twice. Capital spending is split: 9.5% of revenue at the basis quarter gliding to 15% carries the maintenance and technology-migration spend inside the verticals, and the two fab programmes approved on 7 August 2026 - Yongin Y2 at W35,224.6bn to October 2031 and Cheongju M17 at W19,100bn to April 2031 - are carried separately at their filed totals and schedules, because a committed fab spends on its own calendar whether or not revenue grows. Together they put FY2026 capex at about W46 trillion against guidance of the high W40 trillion range. P&T7's W7,093.1bn is an increase to an already-approved packaging plant with no disclosed schedule, so it sits inside the revenue-scaled line rather than as a third programme. Share count and net cash are both pro-forma for the same November 2026 state, so the buyback is not counted twice: 7,047,966,690 ADS-equivalent shares (728,866,669 common less the 24,070,000 approved for cancellation, times ten ADSs per share) and $45.3bn of net cash (W69.4tn at 30 June, plus the W39.9tn of July ADS proceeds, less the W40.0tn buyback and the W0.27tn Q2 dividend). Both assume the programme completes in full by 19 November 2026. Net profit is NOT in this model at all: the W93.9tn reported for the quarter exceeds revenue because W65.9tn of it is finance income, largely a derivative revaluation on the 2023 exchangeable bonds. Seasonality: DRAM and NAND are modelled aseasonal on purpose. A ratio-to-centred-moving-average run over all fourteen quarters gives DRAM factors of [0.927, 1.051, 1.014, 1.008] with window-to-window spreads of 0.051, 0.059, 0.191 and 0.252 - the spread exceeds the signal by two to five times, and the apparent Q4 strength is trend, because every year in the sample was an up-year. Only Others carries a shape bigger than its noise, and it is half a percent of revenue.
Supply physically cannot answer inside the first half of the horizon, and the company's own schedule is the evidence: Yongin Y1's first cleanroom opens February 2027, Cheongju M17's December 2028 and Yongin Y2's June 2029, while utilisation is already pinned at 100% and production capacity compounds at about 17% a year. Omdia, quoted by the company, has DRAM and NAND bit demand growing at a 19% CAGR through 2030 - faster than SK hynix is adding capacity. In this case volume runs 2% a quarter ahead of base, margins run eight points higher, and the consolidated EBITDA margin stays in the sixties through 2028 - 68.4% in Q1 falling to 63.3% in Q4 - with a 9.5% discount rate and an 8x exit. Fair value $376.67. It is a claim about industry capacity discipline, and the last four cycles all ended when that discipline broke.
Latest: $167.74B (2031Q2E)
| Period | Value |
|---|---|
| 2023Q1 | $3.34B |
| 2023Q2 | $4.80B |
| 2023Q3 | $5.95B |
| 2023Q4 | $7.42B |
| 2024Q1 | $8.16B |
| 2024Q2 | $10.78B |
| 2024Q3 | $11.53B |
| 2024Q4 | $12.97B |
| 2025Q1 | $11.58B |
| 2025Q2 | $14.59B |
| 2025Q3 | $16.05B |
| 2025Q4 | $21.55B |
| 2026Q1 | $34.51B |
| 2026Q2 | $52.06B |
| 2026Q3E | $65.93B |
| 2026Q4E | $78.90B |
| 2027Q1E | $90.39B |
| 2027Q2E | $100.47B |
| 2027Q3E | $109.11B |
| 2027Q4E | $116.52B |
| 2028Q1E | $122.74B |
| 2028Q2E | $128.19B |
| 2028Q3E | $132.94B |
| 2028Q4E | $137.18B |
| 2029Q1E | $140.89B |
| 2029Q2E | $144.39B |
| 2029Q3E | $147.64B |
| 2029Q4E | $150.77B |
| 2030Q1E | $153.64B |
| 2030Q2E | $156.54B |
| 2030Q3E | $159.37B |
| 2030Q4E | $162.23B |
| 2031Q1E | $164.93B |
| 2031Q2E | $167.74B |
What drives each segment
DRAM (including HBM)
Units × priceVolatile memory sold by the bit at a cycle price. 71.8% of 2026 Q2 revenue and effectively the entire profit pool. HBM is the mix within it that carries the price - SK hynix held a 56.4% revenue share of the HBM market in 2026 Q1 per IDC - but HBM revenue is not separately disclosed in any filing, so DRAM is the finest honest cut. Revenue is bits shipped times average selling price; bits are capped by installed wafer capacity running at 100% utilisation, and no new cleanroom opens before Yongin Y1 in February 2027.
Latest: $131.08B (2031Q2E)
| Period | Value |
|---|---|
| 2023Q1 | $1.92B |
| 2023Q2 | $2.90B |
| 2023Q3 | $3.99B |
| 2023Q4 | $4.82B |
| 2024Q1 | $4.92B |
| 2024Q2 | $7.02B |
| 2024Q3 | $7.91B |
| 2024Q4 | $9.51B |
| 2025Q1 | $9.21B |
| 2025Q2 | $11.24B |
| 2025Q3 | $12.53B |
| 2025Q4 | $16.19B |
| 2026Q1 | $26.69B |
| 2026Q2 | $37.40B |
| 2026Q3E | $48.26B |
| 2026Q4E | $58.40B |
| 2027Q1E | $67.46B |
| 2027Q2E | $75.36B |
| 2027Q3E | $82.16B |
| 2027Q4E | $88.00B |
| 2028Q1E | $93.02B |
| 2028Q2E | $97.39B |
| 2028Q3E | $101.24B |
| 2028Q4E | $104.69B |
| 2029Q1E | $107.84B |
| 2029Q2E | $110.76B |
| 2029Q3E | $113.52B |
| 2029Q4E | $116.16B |
| 2030Q1E | $118.71B |
| 2030Q2E | $121.22B |
| 2030Q3E | $123.69B |
| 2030Q4E | $126.15B |
| 2031Q1E | $128.61B |
| 2031Q2E | $131.08B |
Assumptions & reasoning
- Volume is an index, not a bit count. SK hynix never discloses absolute bits, only quarter-on-quarter percentage changes, so units are 100 at 2026 Q2 and the price per index point is that quarter's DRAM revenue of $37.40bn divided by 100.
- The June quarter's arithmetic closes on the disclosed deltas: bits about +8% times ASP about +30% is +40.4%, against actual DRAM revenue growth of +40.1%. Price is doing nearly all of it - the March quarter was +65% on shipments the company described as similar to the prior quarter.
- Bits start at the guided +10% for 2026 Q3 and glide to 4% a quarter, which is 17% a year - the rate SK hynix's own disclosed production capacity at average cost has actually compounded at (W35.2tn in 2024, W41.2tn in 2025, W48.3tn annualised in H1 2026). Utilisation was 100% for the first half of 2026, so capacity, not demand, sets shipments.
- ASP rises 15% in the first projected quarter and glides to -4%, so in this model DRAM price peaks 44.3% above the June 2026 level in 2027 Q4 and ends the horizon 6.6% below it. The turn is timed to the cleanrooms, not to a view about prices: Yongin Y1 opens February 2027, Cheongju M17 December 2028, Yongin Y2 June 2029.
- HBM revenue is not disclosed anywhere - not in the 424B4, not in the 6-Ks, not in the DART quarterly reports. IDC's 56.4% HBM share is a share of an external market, not a revenue line, so any HBM sub-line would be manufactured. This is the finest honest cut.
- The company disclosed in July 2026 that it has finalised long-term agreements with around ten customers, with a typical term of around five years. That is the first contracted multi-year memory volume in its record, and it is the whole of the Song case.
NAND flash
Units × priceNon-volatile memory, 27.7% of 2026 Q2 revenue and the line that inflected hardest: revenue rose 90% quarter on quarter on a mid-50% ASP increase as enterprise SSD demand for AI inference key-value cache storage overwhelmed a supply base that had been cutting output through 2025. SK hynix (with Solidigm) was the second-largest NAND supplier at an 18.5% revenue share in 2026 Q1 per IDC. Same driver shape as DRAM - bits times ASP against a fixed wafer base - with a later capacity response: Cheongju M17's first cleanroom is scheduled for December 2028.
Latest: $36.32B (2031Q2E)
| Period | Value |
|---|---|
| 2023Q1 | $1.11B |
| 2023Q2 | $1.47B |
| 2023Q3 | $1.59B |
| 2023Q4 | $2.17B |
| 2024Q1 | $2.89B |
| 2024Q2 | $3.40B |
| 2024Q3 | $3.27B |
| 2024Q4 | $3.09B |
| 2025Q1 | $2.12B |
| 2025Q2 | $3.10B |
| 2025Q3 | $3.27B |
| 2025Q4 | $5.08B |
| 2026Q1 | $7.60B |
| 2026Q2 | $14.41B |
| 2026Q3E | $17.41B |
| 2026Q4E | $20.20B |
| 2027Q1E | $22.69B |
| 2027Q2E | $24.85B |
| 2027Q3E | $26.68B |
| 2027Q4E | $28.21B |
| 2028Q1E | $29.48B |
| 2028Q2E | $30.53B |
| 2028Q3E | $31.41B |
| 2028Q4E | $32.15B |
| 2029Q1E | $32.78B |
| 2029Q2E | $33.33B |
| 2029Q3E | $33.81B |
| 2029Q4E | $34.25B |
| 2030Q1E | $34.64B |
| 2030Q2E | $35.01B |
| 2030Q3E | $35.35B |
| 2030Q4E | $35.68B |
| 2031Q1E | $36.00B |
| 2031Q2E | $36.32B |
Assumptions & reasoning
- Same index convention as DRAM: units are 100 at 2026 Q2 and the price per index point is that quarter's NAND revenue of $14.41bn divided by 100. Bits start at the guided low-single-digit increase for 2026 Q3.
- The June quarter does NOT close on the disclosed deltas: bits +15% times ASP +55% is +78%, against actual revenue growth of +89.7%. The roughly seven-point residual is mix - eSSD and 321-layer - inside an ASP the company quotes as a blended average.
- NAND gets the harsher price path of the two lines: ASP peaks 40.9% above June 2026 in 2027 Q3 and ends the horizon 20.7% below it. The capacity answer is later than DRAM's - M17's first cleanroom is December 2028 - but the demand case is weaker too, at high-teens bit growth against DRAM's mid-20s in the company's own 2026 outlook.
- Solidigm, the former Intel NAND business, sits inside this line and is not reported separately. On 6 August 2026 the company confirmed it is reviewing measures to strengthen that business after a report of a W5 trillion pre-IPO raise, so a disposal would change this line's composition without a disclosed baseline.
- The terminal EBITDA margin is 30% against DRAM's 45%, which is an assumption, not a disclosure: no product-level margin exists in any filing. NAND revenue fell 31% quarter on quarter as recently as 2025 Q1, inside this very history.
Others (foundry and system LSI)
Growth pathEverything that is not a memory bit: the SK hynix system ic and SK keyfoundry foundry businesses and CMOS image sensors. Disclosed as a residual line in the revenue-by-product note. It is 0.47% of 2026 Q2 revenue and has been flat in absolute won for three years while memory went up eleven-fold, so it is carried for reconciliation, not for the thesis.
Latest: $341M (2031Q2E)
| Period | Value |
|---|---|
| 2023Q1 | $316M |
| 2023Q2 | $428M |
| 2023Q3 | $364M |
| 2023Q4 | $431M |
| 2024Q1 | $347M |
| 2024Q2 | $353M |
| 2024Q3 | $357M |
| 2024Q4 | $378M |
| 2025Q1 | $245M |
| 2025Q2 | $250M |
| 2025Q3 | $247M |
| 2025Q4 | $278M |
| 2026Q1 | $225M |
| 2026Q2 | $247M |
| 2026Q3E | $256M |
| 2026Q4E | $300M |
| 2027Q1E | $235M |
| 2027Q2E | $256M |
| 2027Q3E | $268M |
| 2027Q4E | $315M |
| 2028Q1E | $248M |
| 2028Q2E | $272M |
| 2028Q3E | $286M |
| 2028Q4E | $337M |
| 2029Q1E | $266M |
| 2029Q2E | $292M |
| 2029Q3E | $307M |
| 2029Q4E | $363M |
| 2030Q1E | $287M |
| 2030Q2E | $315M |
| 2030Q3E | $332M |
| 2030Q4E | $393M |
| 2031Q1E | $310M |
| 2031Q2E | $341M |
Assumptions & reasoning
- Carried so the three disclosed lines sum to reported consolidated revenue, and for no other reason: it was 0.47% of revenue in the basis quarter, W376,105m of W79,318,746m, and it has been flat in won for twelve quarters while memory went up eleven-fold.
- Labelled 'Others' in the Korean quarterly reports, the semi-annual report and the prospectus. The naming is inconsistent between documents; the amounts tie exactly.
- This is the only line whose seasonality is bigger than its own noise: a December lift of about 15% across three windows with a spread of 0.067, and a March discount of about 11%. It is carried because it costs nothing, and it moves consolidated revenue by under 0.1% in any quarter.
- The 15% EBITDA margin and 10% capex intensity are assumptions from mature-node foundry peers. No margin, capex or capacity is disclosed for this line, or for any line.
Where each case comes from
Bear case — primary sources
The primary sources this case is built from — filings, calls and posts. Where they are claims by an interested party rather than disclosures, every number in the Bear column is what happens if they are taken at face value.
The last time this cycle turned
- Oct 26, 2023 SK hynix recorded revenues of 9.066 trillion won, operating losses of 1.792 trillion won and net losses of 2.185 trillion won in the third quarter this year.
- Jul 10, 2026 our two largest customers represented 14.8% and 12.4%, respectively, of our total revenue in the first quarter of 2026 and our largest customer represented 23.9% of our total revenue in 2025
Bull case — primary sources
The primary sources this case is built from — filings, calls and posts. Where they are claims by an interested party rather than disclosures, every number in the Bull column is what happens if they are taken at face value.
The supply that answers this shortage is dated
Song case — primary sources
The primary sources this case is built from — filings, calls and posts. Where they are claims by an interested party rather than disclosures, every number in the Song column is what happens if they are taken at face value.
Memory sold on contract rather than on the spot market
From cash flow to fair value
| Present value of free cash flow, 20 quarters | $770.23B |
| Terminal-year revenue | $654.27B |
| Terminal-year EBITDA | $361.92B |
| Exit multiple, on ebitda | 8.0x |
| Terminal value | $2.90T |
| Discounted at 9.5% a year, terminal value becomes | $1.84T |
| Enterprise value | $2.61T |
| Net cash | $45.30B |
| Equity value | $2.65T |
| Shares | 7.05B |
| Fair value per share | $376.67 |
| Against the current price of $161.61 | +133% |
EV/EBITDA on a mid-cycle margin, not on this one. A DCF is not defensible here: the terminal value would be dominated by an ASP assumption with no long-run trend, and the discount rate would be doing less work than the margin. The base case exits at 6.0x the final four quarters' EBITDA of $214.6bn - memory has traded 4-8x mid-cycle EBITDA for two decades - discounted at 11%, above the US large-cap semi range for cycle and currency risk. Each case discounts at its own rate: 14% in Bear, 9.5% in Bull, 10.5% in Song. That gives an enterprise value of $1,279bn, a fair value of $187.86 an ADS against $158.02, and a range of $75 to $377 across the cases. Read two warnings with it. First, the exit multiple and the price path decide almost the whole answer: the terminal value is $764bn of the $1,279bn. Second, every multiple quoted about this company today annualises the most extreme quarter in its history - the same business ran a 35% operating margin across 2024 and a negative 20% one in 2023 Q3. The 6.5x on the ADS market cap, and 5.1x on the Seoul line, that today's price implies against an annualised June-quarter EBITDA of $169.5bn are floors, not multiples to underwrite. Note also what this fair value is measured against: the ADS at $158.02, which is about 26.5% above the Seoul common line at spot FX, and the operating model runs at a fixed W1,523.5 while the market embeds about W1,382.
Read the other way round: at $161.61 the market is paying 1.4x terminal-year revenue, holding every other assumption on this page fixed. That is the number to argue about.
Capex outside the verticals
Each vertical's capex is a share of its own revenue, which is the right shape for capacity that scales with sales. These are not that: fixed-size programmes with their own schedule that spend whether or not any segment grows. They are added on top, and they are why free cash flow dips in the years below.
Yongin Y2
2026 Q3 → 2031 Q2W35,224.6bn approved 7 August 2026, investment period to 31 October 2031 - 29.19% of total equity at 31 December 2025. Groundbreaking July 2027, first cleanroom June 2029, for HBM and next-generation DRAM. Carried at the filed total spread evenly over the 22 quarters of the disclosed period, because a committed fab spends on its own calendar, not on a percentage of revenue.
Cheongju M17
2026 Q3 → 2031 Q1W19,100bn approved 7 August 2026, investment period to April 2031. Groundbreaking February 2027, first cleanroom December 2028, for NAND. Spread evenly over the 19 quarters of the disclosed period. This is the supply that answers the NAND price in this model, and it is dated more than two years out.
The projected path
| Quarter | DRAM (including HBM) | NAND flash | Others (foundry and system LSI) | Revenue | YoY | EBITDA | Capex | FCF | R40 | PV of FCF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 Q3E | $48.26B | $17.41B | $256M | $65.93B | +311% | $56.12B | $8.52B | $36.65B | +366 | $35.83B |
| 2026 Q4E | $58.40B | $20.20B | $300M | $78.90B | +266% | $64.33B | $10.41B | $41.52B | +319 | $39.68B |
| 2027 Q1E | $67.46B | $22.69B | $235M | $90.39B | +162% | $70.84B | $12.21B | $45.14B | +212 | $42.17B |
| 2027 Q2E | $75.36B | $24.85B | $256M | $100.47B | +93% | $75.82B | $13.89B | $47.69B | +140 | $43.55B |
| 2027 Q3E | $82.16B | $26.68B | $268M | $109.11B | +65% | $79.50B | $15.41B | $49.35B | +111 | $44.06B |
| 2027 Q4E | $88.00B | $28.21B | $315M | $116.52B | +48% | $82.16B | $16.76B | $50.35B | +91 | $43.94B |
| 2028 Q1E | $93.02B | $29.48B | $248M | $122.74B | +36% | $84.00B | $17.95B | $50.86B | +77 | $43.39B |
| 2028 Q2E | $97.39B | $30.53B | $272M | $128.19B | +28% | $85.29B | $19.01B | $51.04B | +67 | $42.57B |
| 2028 Q3E | $101.24B | $31.41B | $286M | $132.94B | +22% | $86.19B | $19.95B | $51.01B | +60 | $41.59B |
| 2028 Q4E | $104.69B | $32.15B | $337M | $137.18B | +18% | $86.83B | $20.79B | $50.85B | +55 | $40.53B |
| 2029 Q1E | $107.84B | $32.78B | $266M | $140.89B | +15% | $87.28B | $21.54B | $50.62B | +51 | $39.44B |
| 2029 Q2E | $110.76B | $33.33B | $292M | $144.39B | +13% | $87.66B | $22.23B | $50.39B | +48 | $38.38B |
| 2029 Q3E | $113.52B | $33.81B | $307M | $147.64B | +11% | $88.01B | $22.86B | $50.16B | +45 | $37.35B |
| 2029 Q4E | $116.16B | $34.25B | $363M | $150.77B | +10% | $88.36B | $23.46B | $49.97B | +43 | $36.37B |
| 2030 Q1E | $118.71B | $34.64B | $287M | $153.64B | +9% | $88.71B | $24.01B | $49.82B | +41 | $35.45B |
| 2030 Q2E | $121.22B | $35.01B | $315M | $156.54B | +8% | $89.13B | $24.54B | $49.74B | +40 | $34.60B |
| 2030 Q3E | $123.69B | $35.35B | $332M | $159.37B | +8% | $89.61B | $25.05B | $49.71B | +39 | $33.80B |
| 2030 Q4E | $126.15B | $35.68B | $393M | $162.23B | +8% | $90.15B | $25.55B | $49.75B | +38 | $33.07B |
| 2031 Q1E | $128.61B | $36.00B | $310M | $164.93B | +7% | $90.74B | $26.02B | $49.83B | +38 | $32.38B |
| 2031 Q2E | $131.08B | $36.32B | $341M | $167.74B | +7% | $91.42B | $25.84B | $50.50B | +37 | $32.08B |
Every row is projected. A year-over-year change is shown only where the quarter it compares against exists — an em dash means there is no comparable quarter, not a flat year.
Model revisions
Assumptions are marked to reality as each quarter prints. Every change is appended here, with the fair value the model produced at the time, so the model's own history stays visible.
| Date | Changed | Fair value then | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-27 | all | $187.86 | First published model, built on the 2026 Q2 print of 29 July 2026 and the semi-annual report 6-K of 18 August. Three disclosed product lines, fourteen quarters of history, bit-index-times-ASP drivers on both memory lines, and the two fabs approved on 7 August carried as capital programmes. Shares and net cash are pro-forma for the W40 trillion buyback and cancellation approved 19 August. |