Samsung Q2 net profit surges 1,300% as AI chip demand fuels record earnings

Samsung Electronics said on Thursday its second-quarter net profit jumped nearly 1,300 per cent from a year earlier, as strong demand for semiconductors related to artificial intelligence (AI) offset weaker earnings in its mobile business.

Net profit for the April-June period came to 71.62 trillion won (US$49.6 billion), up 1,299.9 percent on-year from 5.11 trillion won a year earlier, the South Korean tech giant said in a press release.

Operating income for the cited quarter rose 1,813.8 percent on-year to 89.49 trillion won while sales increased 130 percent on-year to 171.49 trillion won.

The world's top memory chipmaker posted record quarterly revenue and operating profit for the third consecutive quarter.

The results met market expectations. The average analyst estimate for net profit was 71.21 trillion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data unit of Yonhap News Agency.

Earnings per share stood at 10,849 won for both common and preferred shares, up 52 percent from the previous quarter, reaching one of the highest levels among global technology companies.

Samsung Electronics attributed the stellar performance to its response to growing market demand by leveraging its technological leadership, particularly in AI-related products.

The lucrative semiconductor business posted record sales of 127.5 trillion won and operating profit of 89.2 trillion won for the cited quarter.

The strong performance was driven by continued growth in global investment in AI infrastructure, which has tightened semiconductor supplies and kept memory chip prices elevated.

Samsung Electronics said it expects semiconductor demand to remain strong in the second half of the year, supporting continued growth in overall earnings.

"In the second half of this year, the memory business expects robust demand centred on servers stemming from continued AI infrastructure capex and broader adoption of agentic AI," the company outlined in a release.

Industry observers expect favourable market conditions for the global chip market to continue at least through next year.

"The supply-demand gap is expected to widen further next year compared with this year," the company said during a conference call.

Accordingly, Samsung Electronics said it plans to proactively optimize its product mix for both DRAM and NAND flash memory by taking into account changes in market demand and customers' evolving needs.

The tech giant expects profitability in the foundry business to improve more substantially in the second half as it restructures its business portfolio to focus on high-growth segments.

Capital expenditures totalled 16.8 trillion won in the second quarter, up 5.5 trillion won from the previous quarter.

Of the total, 15.4 trillion won was invested in the chip division, while 700 billion won was allocated to the display business.

Samsung Electronics has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI boom, backed by the world's largest memory chip production capacity.

(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by Education Post)