South Korea-based technology giant Samsung Electronics on Thursday reported a record operating profit of 89.5 trillion won ($62 billion) for the quarter ended June.
The tech giant follows the calendar year for its financial reporting, with the first quarter running from January to March, the second from April to June, the third from July to September, and the fourth from October to December. Its fiscal year ends on December 31.
Samsung’s revenue soars
The technology giant reported a more than 19-fold jump in operating profit for the second quarter compared with the same period last year. According to AP, the majority of its earnings came from the company’s semiconductor division, which benefited from rising chip prices driven by robust demand for AI servers and higher shipments of advanced high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Further, the semiconductor division’s strong performance offset an operating loss in the company’s mobile, TV and home appliances business, where higher component costs weighed on profitability.
Samsung’s second-quarter revenue reached an all-time high of 171.5 trillion won ($119 billion). The company said it expects robust demand for memory products in the second half of the year, driven by the expansion of AI infrastructure and the broader adoption of agentic AI. It also said growing demand for server chips is expected to keep the memory chip market undersupplied.
The results came a day after rival SK Hynix posted record earnings, as the world’s two biggest memory chipmakers continue to benefit from surging demand driven by the AI boom.
SK Hynix posts record earnings but shares fall
On Tuesday, SK Hynix also reported record earnings, with its second-quarter revenue reaching 60.5 trillion won ($42 billion). However, the company’s profit remained below market expectations, with its shares declining by over nine per cent on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Samsung’s shares have also declined this week.
Shares of the world’s two largest memory chipmakers fell in South Korea’s volatile stock market, where retail investors often trigger sharp price swings, amid growing concerns over the companies’ aggressive manufacturing expansion plans and the prospect of intensifying competition from Chinese rivals.
Further, shares of the two rival chipmakers have also been under pressure amid growing concerns over intensifying competition from China, with reports suggesting that a state-owned Beijing company has now commenced mass production of advanced immersion deep-ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machines, a key technology for advanced chipmaking, domestically. Additionally, investors have also been buoyed by the strong stock market debut of ChangXin Memory Technologies, a Chinese memory chipmaker.
Concerns grow over Samsung, SK Hynix’s soaring investments
According to reports, the two rivals together produce roughly two-thirds of the world’s memory chips, and while the companies have announced plans for major investments in semiconductor manufacturing facilities and data centres, there are growing concerns over whether such massive spending will ultimately generate sufficient returns.
This comes after both Samsung and SK Hynix announced plans last month to invest a combined 800 trillion won ($554 billion) in a new chipmaking hub in the country’s southwest to capitalize on surging AI-driven demand.
The heads of Samsung, SK Group and South Korean automaker Hyundai accompanied President Lee Jae Myung on his visit to San Francisco last week, where they unveiled plans for hundreds of billions of dollars in collaborations with leading US technology companies, including AI firms OpenAI and Anthropic, as well as chip designers Nvidia and Broadcom. The partnerships cover chip technologies, data centres and other AI infrastructure.
