By Kwanwoo Jun
Samsung Electronics projected a 19-fold surge in second-quarter operating profit, signaling that its record earnings streak is set to continue amid the artificial-intelligence boom and red-hot demand for chips to power AI infrastructure and applications.
The strong results from the world's largest memory-chip maker are likely to help ease recent market concerns about the sustainability of AI-computing-capacity spending. Shares in Samsung more than doubled from April to June, only to lose momentum this month as investors' jitters resurfaced.
Samsung has extended its run of record quarterly revenue and operating profit since the final quarter of 2025. Its chip-making division is expected to fuel even stronger earnings growth this year, many analysts said, citing booming demand for AI chips.
The South Korean technology company said in a preliminary earnings report Tuesday that its operating profit likely reached an all-time high of about 89.4 trillion won, equivalent to $58.47 billion, for the three months ended June. That would be a 56% jump from the previous quarter's record.
The projected operating profit also surpassed a FactSet-compiled consensus estimate of 85.054 trillion won for the second quarter.
Quarterly revenue is forecast to have more than doubled to a record 171 trillion won, Samsung said.
Some analysts said that Samsung's operating profit would have topped the estimate had it not booked a provision for special bonuses payable early next year to employees in its chip-making division. Samsung in May agreed to allocate 10.5% of its semiconductor division's annual operating profit to special bonuses, contingent on the company meeting certain profitability benchmarks.
Citigroup analyst Peter Lee said that Samsung's recent share-price pullback may be a technical correction. The stock has surged more than 150% this year, supported by better-than-expected server DRAM chip pricing driven by strong demand for AI central processing units.
"We believe memory fundamentals are intact, and server DRAM pricing has been outperforming on strong CPU demand," Lee said, raising his 2026 operating profit forecast for Samsung to 401 trillion won from 334 trillion won.
In June, Samsung said it would spend about 400 trillion won to build a new semiconductor-manufacturing hub in southwestern South Korea to meet growing demand, as part of a broader investment plan focused on chips and AI.
The company is scheduled to release full quarterly results, including a breakdown of earnings by business segment, later this month.
Write to Kwanwoo Jun at kwanwoo.jun@wsj.com