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South Korean chip giant SK hynix on Wednesday reported a 632% surge in third-quarter operating profit, fueled by booming demand for AI semiconductors, and unveiled plans to return an additional $45 billion to shareholders.

The company is a specialist supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips to U.S. industry behemoth Nvidia, and a pillar of South Korea's tech-led economy.

Operating profit for its July-September period reached 83.33 trillion won ($62.8 billion), about seven times the year-ago level, the company said.

Net profit jumped 215.7% year over year to 39.77 trillion won, while sales reached 104.61 trillion won.

The firm said it had posted record revenue and operating profit for six straight quarters since April-June last year.

However, the net profit reading fell short of market expectations, with the average analyst estimate at 59.67 trillion won, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing its own data firm.

"SK hynix analyzed that a virtuous cycle has taken hold in which AI-driven productivity gains and new revenue generation in areas such as software development, customer service, and search lead to greater AI adoption," the chipmaker said in a statement.

SK hynix also announced Wednesday an additional plan to return 60 trillion won to shareholders, following the completion of a 40 trillion-won shareholder return program.

S. tech firms' AI spending.

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