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SKHY · Forward model · DRAM (including HBM) · Song case

What has to happen in DRAM (including HBM)

Model as of

This page changes DRAM (including HBM) inside the complete SKHY model. Every other vertical, corporate programme and valuation assumption stays in the selected portfolio case.

SKHY forward model
Horizon
Consolidated fair value $249.91 all other verticals held in this portfolio case
Final-quarter revenue $97.47B 78% of company revenue
Explicit segment contribution $651.19B EBITDA less segment capex, before corporate items

President Song Hyeon-jong's case on the 29 July call: memory has stopped being a spot commodity. Long-term agreements are finalised with around ten customers on terms of around five years - the first contracted multi-year memory volume in SK hynix's disclosure record - so the amplitude of the next downturn is damped even when spot prices fall, and the terminal margin sits above the historical mid-cycle rather than at it. Modelled as five points of margin, half a point a quarter of extra volume and a 7x exit at a 10.5% discount rate: fair value $249.91, close to the $245.43 street target. What it does not achieve: no disclosed volume floor, no disclosed price floor and no disclosed share of revenue under contract exists in any filing, so this case rests on a transcript, and it still ends the horizon with a 51.5% EBITDA margin - well below today's 81.4%.

DRAM (including HBM)

Basis quarter$37.40B
Final quarter$97.47B
Implied CAGR+21%
Final revenue mix78%

Volatile 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.

Last four quarters
2025 Q3 $12.53B Reported
2025 Q4 $16.19B Estimated
2026 Q1 $26.69B Reported
2026 Q2 $37.40B Reported
HBM3E and HBM4 for AI acceleratorsServer DRAM for AI and general-purpose serversSOCAMM2 and LPDDR modulesMobile, graphics and consumer DRAM
Units 100/qtr growing +10.0% per quarter Index, 2026 Q2 = 100. Absolute bit shipments are never disclosed - only QoQ percentage changes are.
Price per unit $374M drifting +15.0% per quarter $374.0m of revenue per index point: the basis quarter's $37.40bn DRAM revenue divided by 100.
DRAM (including HBM)

Latest: $97.47B (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 $47.55B
2026Q4E $56.69B
2027Q1E $64.53B
2027Q2E $71.03B
2027Q3E $76.30B
2027Q4E $80.51B
2028Q1E $83.86B
2028Q2E $86.50B
2028Q3E $88.60B
2028Q4E $90.28B
2029Q1E $91.62B
2029Q2E $92.72B
2029Q3E $93.63B
2029Q4E $94.40B
2030Q1E $95.06B
2030Q2E $95.63B
2030Q3E $96.15B
2030Q4E $96.62B
2031Q1E $97.06B
2031Q2E $97.47B

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.
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