Samsung profit jumps 19-fold as AI chip demand offsets first loss in mobiles

Samsung Electronics said on Thursday its operating profit jumped 19-fold to a record in the second quarter, as flagged, with strong demand for AI chips offsetting a slide in its mobile business hit by higher costs.

Samsung expected its earnings to continue to rise in the second half, saying robust demand for AI data centres will keep memory chip supplies tight.

Its shares were up 1.8 percent in early trading after the earnings announcement, beating the wider market's 0.5 percent gain.

That follows a sharp slide in recent months, as chip stocks have lost momentum amid investor concerns about funding for the AI infrastructure buildout and competition from China that could put chip earnings under pressure.

Samsung's semiconductor division posted an operating profit of 89.2 trillion won (HK$482.4 billion) in the second quarter, up over 250-fold from a year earlier.

However, those surging chip prices hurt Samsung's mobile division, which reported a 700 billion won loss, its first quarter in the red.

"In H2 2026, the Memory Business expects robust demand centered on servers stemming from continued AI infrastructure capex and broader adoption of agentic AI," Samsung said in a statement.

"This is projected to keep the market undersupplied, despite partial demand moderation in mobile and PCs."

The world's top memory chipmaker reported operating profit of 89.5 trillion won (US$61.98 billion) for the April-to-June period, in line with its estimate of 89.4 trillion won and up from 4.68 trillion won a year earlier.

The South Korean company's revenue rose 130 percent to 171.5 trillion won in the quarter from a year earlier.

Reuters

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