SK Hynix Q3 net profit $28.6B, plans $10.1B dividend and $14.4B buyback

The scale of the capital return is the real signal: a dividend and buyback of this size imply SK Hynix sees the memory upcycle as durable rather than a spike, and the locked-in long-term contracts covering most 2027-2028 capacity back that view with committed demand rather than sentiment. That matters well beyond the chipmaker, since memory supply is the cost floor for AI hardware and the data-center buildout that RWA and tokenization infrastructure ultimately depends on. The open question is whether the shortage through 2030 holds if rivals add capacity, or whether those locked contracts simply shift pricing power to buyers.