Samsung Electronics reported a record operating profit of 89.5 trillion won ($62 billion) for April to June, a day after rival SK Hynix also posted record earnings. The result was more than 19 times higher than a year earlier, and nearly all of it came from the chip business, which gained from rising prices and higher shipments of advanced high-bandwidth memory used in AI.
The surge follows a string of record quarters. In January, Samsung reported fourth-quarter operating profit of 20 trillion won, more than triple the 6.49 trillion won a year earlier. Its chip division was the driver, with profit up 470% to a record 16.4 trillion won, while the mobile phone business was squeezed by surging chip prices. Co-CEO TM Roh called the chip shortage "unprecedented."
Executives expect the squeeze to continue. Kim Jaejune, an executive in Samsung's memory division, said the company expects the gap between chip supply and demand to widen further in 2027. Samsung and its rivals are shifting capacity toward the high-end chips used in Nvidia's AI accelerators.
The boom has not been smooth for investors. Memory-chip makers' profits have soared in 2026, but their share prices have been volatile as investors question whether the AI boom has gone too far. Samsung's second-quarter results came a day after a sharp sell-off in South Korean stocks. The chip windfall has also lifted South Korea's tax revenue, and President Lee Jae Myung has called it a "golden window" to invest in AI and semiconductors.