Original text | Su Yang

Editor | Xu Qingyang

The continually rising market value of SK Hynix adds some drama to the hot storage sector with its "year-end bonus forecast."

Recently, news reported that, driven by a surge in AI-driven storage demand, the Korean company SK Hynix, as a core storage supplier, is expected to reach an operating profit upper limit of 250 trillion won by 2026, and according to a 10% dividend rule, the average year-end bonus per employee could exceed 3 million yuan.

SK Hynix Performance Data

Korean media quoted a matchmaking company's perspective, stating that "the matchmaking of SK Hynix employees is now unconditionally rated as A-level," with variety shows even teasing the significant value of SK Hynix's work uniforms.

Investment bank Macquarie Securities forecasted that SK Hynix's operating profit will reach 447 trillion won by 2027. If the dividend rule remains unchanged, in 2027, the average bonus that can be distributed is about 1.29 billion won, close to 6.1 million yuan.

In response to Caixin, SK Hynix confirmed the authenticity of the dividend distribution rule based on 10% of operating profit and emphasized that as the annual performance for 2026 and the following year has not yet been determined, the bonus scale is also unpredictable, subtly denying the accuracy of the 6.1 million yuan bonus package.

The high year-end bonus forecast may not be accurate, but there is a clear difference in bonuses for employees in China and Korea.

“We have removed the bonus cap, but bonuses in China are still low,” said an SK Hynix employee in China. “In Korea, bonuses are settled once a year; here in China, it is twice a year.”

The employee revealed that if they distribute 3 million in bonuses, Chinese employees would get less than 5%, which roughly translates to about 150,000 yuan. “It’s not to say that everyone gets 150,000; the amount is adjusted based on KPI ratings, the higher the rating, the higher the bonus. At my peak, I got a bit over 100,000.”

This employee has worked at SK Hynix for over 10 years and has a technical background.

In the supercycle of the storage industry, the expectation of high year-end bonuses has triggered media reports, stating that storage has surpassed doctors and lawyers as the most favored position by mothers-in-law in the Korean matchmaking market.

However, compared to the current heat, the down cycle of storage presents a completely different scenario.

In the fiscal year 2023, the global semiconductor industry is in a "winter season," with SK Hynix’s total annual revenue decreasing by about 27% year-on-year to 32.77 trillion won, and a net loss reaching 9.14 trillion won. “At the lowest point, around 2023 or 2024, there were no bonuses, it was zero,” disclosed the aforementioned SK Hynix employee in China.

Regarding the hot topic of “average bonuses of over 3 million and 6 million,” many industry practitioners have raised doubts, emphasizing that averages do not hold reference value.

“An average is possible, but it certainly cannot mean every person gets 3 million yuan; executives earn significantly more, engineers make hundreds of thousands, while operators might be satisfied with just 100,000,” said a semiconductor practitioner. “For example, TSMC engineers can realistically earn around 1 million yuan annually.”

“I just look at my income, and then I see the numbers online; the gap is too big,” said the aforementioned SK Hynix employee when explaining the differences in year-end bonuses for Chinese and Korean employees. “They (Korean employees) earn higher monthly salaries, and bonuses are calculated based on the equivalent of 12 months of salary.”

Currently, SK Hynix has three main factories in mainland China, located in Wuxi, Dalian, and Chongqing, where Wuxi is primarily engaged in DRAM operations, Dalian is the NAND factory established after acquiring Intel's assets for Solidigm, and the Chongqing factory serves as a packaging and testing base, with sales companies in Shenzhen, Beijing, and Shanghai providing technical support.

According to Liepin.com posted recruitment information for the Dalian factory, the monthly salary range for related engineering positions generally falls between 10,000 to 30,000 yuan, promising to pay a 13th-month salary, and senior engineering positions may have monthly salaries reaching 35,000 yuan.

Besides salaries, SK Hynix also provides routine benefits such as annual leave for Chinese employees; for example, positions in sales and other support roles do not require overtime, but there are no stock-related incentives.

"Management positions exist, but they are all held by Koreans; Chinese employees cannot hold management positions," emphasized the aforementioned SK Hynix employee in China.

Multiple former employees from Korean companies have indicated that the company generally does not offer stock incentives to Chinese employees. In the view of a former Samsung employee, Chinese companies resemble a sales entity, akin to the concept of a national-level agent.

“Now there are also people from mainland China entering the middle management, and TSMC is similar,” said Wu Zihau, a former factory construction expert at TSMC and CEO of Ronghe Semiconductor Consulting. “In Korean factories, there are mostly Koreans, which is normal; as time goes on in mainland operations, local management will also emerge; it’s not that absolute.”

From the industry's and companies' perspectives, it appears that in the next 2-3 years, storage will continue to be a hot topic, with “marriage and matchmaking themes” and “work uniform themes” continually arising.

At the Q1 earnings meeting, SK Hynix's chief financial officer stated that, in the next three years, demand represented by HBM is likely to continue surpassing supply, and related growth will continue to revolve around B2B demands. This signal is also reflected in SK Hynix's official press release.

SK Hynix stated: “Although Q1 is typically a seasonal low, driven by the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure investments, market demand remains strong. The company continues to boost sales of high-value products such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM), large-capacity server DRAM modules, and enterprise-level solid-state drives (eSSD), maintaining an upward trend in performance.”

In summary, the above are all typical B2B customer demands.

This also means that if storage manufacturers like SK Hynix do not increase capacity support for consumer-grade products, the earlier discussed topic of rising memory prices will continue to impact consumer-grade products, thus driving a wave of price increases; the “electronic gold” will continue to trouble cyber players.

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