Samsung Electronics is set to post the best quarterly earnings in two years on the back of the global chip market rebound driven by growing AI demand. The tech giant’s second-quarter operating profit beat market expectations by nearly 2 trillion won, rising almost 15-fold year-on-year. Analysts attribute the strong comeback to rising DRAM and NAND flash prices, which bolstered the performance of the company’s semiconductor division, and the narrowing of losses at its foundry and system LSI divisions.
The world’s largest memory chipmaker’s operating profit in the three months to June is expected to reach 10.4 trillion won ($7.5 billion), up 1,452% from a year ago, Samsung Electronics said in a regulatory filing on July 5. This marks the largest quarterly profit in nearly two years since the third quarter of 2022 (10.85 trillion won). Sales increased 23.31% to 74 trillion won year-on-year.
Analysts point to recovering memory chip demand as the main driver behind the chipmaker’s turnaround. Samsung raised DRAM prices by 10-20% in the second quarter, which boosted the company’s overall profitability. Increased demand for high-performance memory chips such as DDR5 and solid-state drives (SSDs) for AI data centers also contributed to robust earnings.
“Second quarter earnings beat market expectations as sales of high-value-added memory chips increased due to strong demand for AI chips amid a swift semiconductor market recovery,” said a Samsung Electronics representative. “The non-memory business saw gradual demand recovery, improved foundry utilization rates, and cost reduction effects.”
