Samsung Electronics' Q2 net profit surges nearly 1,300 per cent to USD 49.6 billion on AI chip demand

Samsung Electronics said on Thursday its secondquarter net profit jumped nearly 1300 per cent from a year earlier as strong demand for semiconductors related to artificial intelligence AI offset weaker earnings in its mobile businessNet profit for the AprilJune period came to 7162 trillion won USD496 billion up 12999 percent onyear from 511 trillion won a year earlier the South Korean tech giant said in a press releaseOperating income for the cited quarter rose 18138 percent onyear to 8949 trillion won while sales increased 130 percent onyear to 17149 trillion wonThe worlds top memory chipmaker posted record quarterly revenue and operating profit for the third consecutive quarterThe results met market expectations The average analyst estimate for net profit was 7121 trillion won according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax the financial data unit of Yonhap News AgencyEarnings per share stood at 10849 won for both common and preferred shares up 52 percent from the previous quarter reaching one of the highest levels among global technology companiesSamsung Electronics attributed the stellar performance to its response to growing market demand by leveraging its technological leadership particularly in AIrelated productsThe lucrative semiconductor business posted record sales of 1275 trillion won and operating profit of 892 trillion won for the cited quarterThe strong performance was driven by continued growth in global investment in AI infrastructure which has tightened semiconductor supplies and kept memory chip prices elevatedSamsung Electronics said it expects semiconductor demand to remain strong in the second half of the year supporting continued growth in overall earningsIn 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 releaseIndustry observers expect favourable market conditions for the global chip market to continue at least through next yearThe supplydemand gap is expected to widen further next year compared with this year the company said during a conference callAccordingly 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 needsThe 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 highgrowth segmentsCapital expenditures totalled 168 trillion won in the second quarter up 55 trillion won from the previous quarterOf the total 154 trillion won was invested in the chip division while 700 billion won was allocated to the display businessSamsung Electronics has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI boom backed by the worlds largest memory chip production capacityThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever