SK hynix Chief Executive Officer Kwak Noh-jung raised concerns over rising tariff-related risks in the second half of the year, while the company celebrates its record-breaking sales, according to industry sources Wednesday.

Speaking at an internal town hall meeting with employees on Tuesday, Kwak said the company's operations are going as planned and called for continued collective efforts to achieve goals.

“It is difficult to predict for next year, but for now, we are moving in line with our plan. Let’s work together to achieve our targets," Kwak said during the meeting held at the company headquarters in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province.

“Volatility is expected to increase in the second half of the year due to tariff impacts and growing uncertainty,” the CEO noted, acknowledging the possibility of renewed tariffs from the US under the second Donald Trump administration.

The US is ramping up its "reciprocal" tariff strategy and has identified semiconductors as a potential target. As the US accounted for over 70 percent of SK hynix's first-quarter sales, the company could face significant headwinds from such a policy shift.

During the January-March period, SK hynix overtook its larger rival Samsung Electronics to secure the top spot in the global DRAM market, backed by its dominance in high bandwidth memory — a key component supporting artificial intelligence processors.

According to market tracker TrendForce, SK hynix secured a 36 percent market share with $9.71 billion in revenue in the first quarter, compared to Samsung’s $9.1 billion and 33.7 percent share.

SK hynix was the first in the industry to mass produce fifth-generation eight-layer HBM3E and 12-layer chips, which are now being supplied to Nvidia, the world's largest graphics processing unit-maker, based in the US. SK hynix has said all its HBM stock for this year has already sold out.

The memory chip-maker was also the first to deliver samples of the sixth-generation 12-layer HBM4 chips to major clients including Nvidia, and has begun the validation process. Full-scale mass production of the high-value product is scheduled for the second half of 2025.

Lee Sang-rak, executive vice president of global sales and marketing at SK hynix, said the market conditions in the first half of this year were “very favorable,” and that, the outlook for the second half “is not pessimistic.”

During the meeting, Kwak also addressed internal concerns regarding the company’s bonus system.

“There has been criticism that the rules are unclear in how bonuses are given. We will take this opportunity to gather opinions from all levels and create a better system,” Kwak said.

On the supply chain front, SK hynix executives reiterated the company’s commitment to supply chain diversification. Recently, the company faced tensions with longtime partner Hanmi Semiconductor after introducing Hanwha Semitech as an alternative supplier of the thermal compression bonders used in HBM production.

SK hynix has been holding town hall meetings quarterly for the CEO to engage with employees and address key business developments. This week’s session was livestreamed to all domestic SK hynix sites.

By: DocMemory
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