South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc. reported a 77-percent year-on-year jump in its operating profit as sizzling demand for memory chips defied the usually slow season of the first quarter and generated a profit of 50 percent for every chip it sold despite softening in prices.

To stay ahead in the game amid heated demand to power enterprise big data servers, the company is mulling around 13 trillion won ($12 billion) in capital investment for this year.

The world’s second-largest DRAM maker in a regulatory filing on Tuesday disclosed an operating profit of 4.37 trillion won, slightly off its best-ever record of 4.47 trillion won in the previous quarter. Sales of 8.72 trillion won were up 38.6 percent against a year-ago period and down from its record-high of 9.03 trillion won in the previous quarter.

Net profit soared 64.4 percent on year to 3.12 trillion won.

Operating margin, which measures income against sales, reached 50.1 percent, meaning half of every chip it sold made money.

Although it has not finalized capex for this year, the chipmaker expects at least a 30 percent increase in spending against last year’s.

“We are thinking more than 30 percent increase to last year’s spending of 10.3 trillion won, given the R&D need and cost for fab tests,” said Lee Myeong-yeong, SK Hynix chief financial officer.

Some of the funding for next-generation M15 cleanroom could be advanced later this year if construction is finished earlier than expected, he added.

Shares of SK Hynix shares finished 2.73 percent down at 82,100 won as investors sensed easing in the memory boom.

Business stayed lucrative for the chipmaker as supply stayed tight due to delay in capacity expansion at Chinese chip lines.

SK Hynix said it was able to maintain robust profitability in the traditionally slow season of the first three months, but shipments in both DRAM and NAND flash fell against the previous quarter.

Its DRAM shipment declined 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its average selling price gained 9 percent. NAND flash shipment dropped 10 percent, while average selling price edged down 1 percent.

Lee predicted that DRAM shipments to increase slightly over 20 percent this year against last year, but supply won’t likely keep up with the demand.

Server DRAMs will likely dominate DRAM demand as companies around the world are expanding big data centers. Fledgling services employing artificial intelligence and Internet of Things will likely fan demand for big-storage chips, he said.

Industry watchers said softening in memory prices due to sluggish smartphone demand and fizzling-out in the encrypted currency market may restrict growth. But as demand is likely to exceed supply, they project the Korean chipmaker to rake in operating profits of 4.7 trillion won in the second quarter and around 5 trillion won in the third on sales of 9.5 trillion won in the second and 10 trillion won in the third.

By Lee Dong-in and Cho Jeehyun

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