Samsung Q2 profit surges 15-fold on strong AI demand

Investing.com– Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (KS:) clocked an exponential rise in its second-quarter profit as the technology conglomerate continued to benefit from artificial intelligence-driven demand for memory chips and electronic devices.

Samsung said on Friday that its operating profit for the three months to June 30 likely rose to 10.4 trillion won ($7.50 billion), compared to a profit of 670 billion won for the same period last year.

The figure was much higher than Reuters estimates for a profit of 8.8 trillion won.

Second quarter sales likely rose to 74 trillion won from 60.01 trillion won a year ago, Samsung said. The electronics giant only provided a preliminary estimate of its second quarter earnings on Friday, and will release its comprehensive earnings later in July. 

But growth in Samsung’s earnings comes on the back of increased demand for memory chips from the AI industry, particularly high-bandwith memory chips. Samsung said it will begin mass producing advanced HBM chips from this year, with a view to win more orders from AI darling NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:). 

AI helped drive up demand for the chip industry over the past year, as a growing number of firms raced to capture market share from majors such as OpenAI with their own offerings. 

Samsung’s device sales, particularly those of its flagship S-series smartphones, also benefited from AI integration.