South Korea's SK Hynix forecast sales of its high-end semiconductors used in generative artificial intelligence chipsets would double this year after reporting a record quarterly profit that surpassed its bigger rival Samsung.

South Korean chipmaking giant SK hynix said on Thursday its fourth-quarter earnings hit a record high on rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, including high bandwidth memory (HBM), sharply beating market expectations.

South Korea’s SK Hynix posted an operating profit of 8.08 trillion won ($5.6 billion) in the December quarter, slightly above the 8 trillion won average forecast by LSEG SmartEstimate. The company also boosted its annual dividend by 25% to 1,