SEOUL, Jan 28 (Reuters) - South Korea's SK Hynix

said on Wednesday that quarterly profit more than

doubled to a record, comfortably beating forecasts on relentless

demand for artificial intelligence ‌that has lifted prices for

both advanced and conventional memory chips.

The ​Nvidia supplier logged a 137% surge in

operating profit ‍to 19.2 trillion won ($13.5 billion) for ⁠the

fourth quarter, ⁠according to Reuters calculations.

That compared with 8.1 trillion won a ‌year earlier and a

17.7 ​trillion won consensus prediction from LSEG SmartEstimate,

which is weighted toward analysts with a ⁠more consistent track

record.

SK Hynix ‍will ​hold a briefing on its fourth-quarter earnings

results on Thursday.

SK Hynix has managed to carve out ‍an enviable lead in high

bandwidth memory (HBM) used in artificial intelligence chipsets

designed by the likes of Nvidia ( NVDA ), commanding a 61% share of the

HBM market, according to Macquarie Equity Research.

It is also ​benefiting ‍as tight supply and rising AI demand

push up prices for commodity DRAM and NAND ​chips used in

servers, personal computers and mobile devices.

For example, contract prices for 16 gigabyte DDR5, a popular

type of DRAM chip, more than quadrupled last quarter from a year

earlier, according to market tracker TrendForce.

TrendForce expects ​conventional DRAM contract prices to rise

a further 55% to 60% in the current quarter from the previous

one.

($1 = 1,422.2400 won)