Samsung Electronics
South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics posted yesterday a massive 19-fold jump in second-quarter operating profit from last year, buoyed by frenzied demand for memory chips used in AI data centers.
Samsung and other leading memory chipmakers have seen profits skyrocket in 2026, but their share prices have proven volatile as investors question whether the artificial intelligence boom is over-hyped.
April-June operating profit came to 89.5 trillion won ($62 billion), up more than 1,800 percent year-on-year, Samsung said.
The company posted revenue of 171.5 trillion won, up 130 percent from a year earlier. Net profit soared nearly 1,300 percent on-year to 71.6 trillion won.
On July 20 South Korean stocks suffered a sharp sell-off as traders unwound AI-driven bets, fretting whether lofty profit expectations are realistic
Samsung fell more than 12 percent, while its main domestic rival SK hynix tumbled nearly 20 percent after 14 percent losses the day before, halving its value from record highs last month.
Samsung Electronics, SK hynix and U.S. firm Micron are the world's biggest manufacturers of advanced high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, used in AI processors to generate chatbot responses and realistic images.
Samsung said in a statement that its memory business "achieved another record-breaking quarter" with a primary focus on server products.
The company said it expects robust server demand in 2026's second half, driven by infrastructure spending and the wider adoption of agentic AI, which autonomously performs real-life tasks for users.
