SEOUL, July 30 — South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics posted today a massive 19-fold jump in second-quarter operating profit from a year earlier, buoyed by sustained AI-driven demand for memory chips.
The world’s largest memory chipmaker posted April-June operating profit of 89.49 trillion won (RM253.4 billion) — up 1,813.8 per cent on-year, the company said in a regulatory filing.
The firm posted revenue of 171.49 trillion won, up 130 per cent from a year earlier.
Its net profit soared 1,299.9 per cent on-year to 71.62 trillion won, it said.
The earnings met market expectations, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said, citing its own financial data firm.
The boom results were posted despite South Korean stocks suffering a sharp sell-off on Wednesday as nervous traders unwound AI-driven bets, fretting whether lofty profit forecasts are realistic.
Samsung fell more than 12 per cent, while its main domestic rival SK hynix tumbled nearly 20 per cent after 14 per cent losses the day before — halving its value from record highs last month.
SK hynix’s second quarter operating profit and revenue posted Wednesday came in below expectations, even as net profit soared a forecast-beating 1,242 per cent.
Samsung Electronics, SK hynix and US firm Micron are the world’s three leading manufacturers of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips used in AI processors to generate chatbot responses and realistic images.
Analysts say the firms’ boom is likely to continue as North American tech giants ramp up investment in AI data centres requiring their cutting-edge chips.
AI expansion has also pushed up prices and shipments of conventional NAND and DRAM memory chips to Samsung’s advantage, analysts say.
The company’s HBM business is also “driving a significantly positive impact on their foundry business as well”, MS Hwang, an analyst at investment firm Counterpoint, told AFP.
“In short, Samsung is leveraging its strong position in memory to aggressively capture share across most of its business units.” — AFP
