Seoul: Samsung Electronics Co. on Tuesday projected its second-quarter operating profit to reach an unprecedented 89.4 trillion won (US$58.8 billion), driven by heightened demand for artificial intelligence-related semiconductors.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the South Korean tech leader's April-June operating profit marks a 1,181 percent increase from the previous year, significantly surpassing the average market forecast by 6.2 percent. This impressive performance is a part of the earnings guidance provided by Samsung Electronics.
The company's earnings forecast incorporates provisions for employee bonuses. Without these provisions, the operating profit for the quarter is estimated to be around 100 trillion won. Samsung's recent wage agreement includes a special semiconductor performance bonus, amounting to 10.5 percent of business performance earnings, to be paid in company stock over a minimum of 10 years.
Samsung Electronics recorded an operating profit of 43.6 trillion won for the entire year of 2025, with the estimated second-quarter profit alone more than doubling the company's full-year operating profit from last year. The second-quarter revenue is projected to have surged by 129.3 percent from the previous year, reaching 171 trillion won. However, net profit figures were not included in the preliminary earnings report.
If confirmed, this would be the third consecutive quarter since the fourth quarter of last year where Samsung Electronics has achieved record quarterly revenue and operating profit. While a detailed breakdown by business division was not provided, the device solutions unit, including the semiconductor segment, is believed to be a major contributor to this success.
The robust performance is primarily attributed to the global increase in AI infrastructure investment, which has exacerbated the semiconductor supply shortage, keeping memory chip prices high. Industry experts anticipate favorable market conditions to persist through the next year.
Samsung Electronics has been a leading beneficiary of the AI supercycle, leveraging its status as the world's largest memory chip producer. Despite concerns about the semiconductor industry's rapid growth reaching a peak, Samsung continues to secure long-term supply agreements with key technology companies and expand production capacity to meet future demand.
The company is also advancing in the high-value product market, having initiated mass production and shipments of sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM4) chips, a first in the industry. In response to the growing demand from AI data centers, memory chipmakers are focusing on developing high-end products, leading to tighter supplies of traditional DRAM and NAND flash products.
Analysts predict that the supply shortage will continue at least until 2027, bolstering the pricing power of Samsung and its competitors, such as SK Hynix Inc. and Micron Technology Inc. On the other hand, Samsung's device experience unit, which manages consumer electronics and mobile businesses, is anticipated to report comparatively weaker results.
Reflecting the positive outlook for Samsung's semiconductor business, the consensus forecast for the company's full-year operating profit has increased from 36.6 trillion won to 37.4 trillion won, as reported by Yonhap Infomax. Samsung Electronics is expected to release its final earnings report later this month.