(LEAD) Samsung Electronics flags over 15-fold surge in Q2 operating profit as AI boom lifts chip prices

Samsung Electronics Co. on Friday estimated its second-quarter operating profit shot up more than 15-fold, as a prolonged boom in artificial intelligence computing lifted prices of memory chips. The world's biggest maker of memory chips expected a second-quarter operating profit of 10.4 trillion won (US$7.5 billion), up 1,452.2 percent from a year earlier, Samsung Electronics said in a regulatory filing. Revenue increased 23.3 percent to 74 trillion won for the April-June period. The company did not disclose the data for net earnings in the guidance. The operating profit was 25.8 percent higher than the average estimate, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency. It is the first time that Samsung Electronics posted an operating profit of 10 trillion won or over since the third quarter of 2022, when it logged 10.8 trillion won. The second-quarter operating profit also topped its annual figure of 6.5 trillion won for 2023. Market watchers noted that a hike in prices of DRAM and NAND flash memory contributed to the better-than-expected earnings of Samsung Electronics. Samsung Electronics did not disclose a detailed earnings report of its business divisions, but the market forecast that the company's semiconductor business earned around 5 trillion won in operating profit. The company's mainstream semiconductor business posted an operating profit of 1.9 trillion won for the first quarter, marking the first quarterly profit since the fourth quarter of 2022. The company will release its final earnings report later this month. Source: Yonhap News Agency