Samsung second-quarter operating profit soars 1,458% as AI demand remains strong; results top estimates

Samsung Electronics on Wednesday reported higher-than-expected second-quarter revenue and operating profit, as demand for its advanced memory chips that are crucial for artificial intelligence training remained strong.

Here are Samsung's second-quarter results versus analysts' average estimates according to LSEG.

Samsung's revenue for the quarter ended June jumped 23.42% from a year earlier, while operating profit soared 1,458.2%.

The South Korean giant said robust demand for high-bandwidth as well as conventional memory, such as regular dynamic random access memory, from customers expanding AI investments contributed to the strong performance.

For the second half, Samsung said it expects the demand from server AI to stay strong across server products including HBM, server DRAM and SSD. SSD, or solid-state drive, refers to a semiconductor-based storage device.

The firm added that expanding capacity to meet demand for HBM and server DRAM could further constrain supply of conventional memorychips.

During its earnings call, the firm said it plans to address the AI demand by expanding sales of HBM3E —the latest AI memory product — through capacity expansion in the second half.

It will also expand sales of SSDs which are currently in high demand for AI servers as well.

The firm also said it would pay out a dividend of 361 won per common and preferred share for the second quarter.

"According to our current dividend policy, the total amount distributed per quarter amounts to approximately 2.45 trillion won, which will be paid near the end of August."

Samsung shares rose as much as 1.35% Wednesday morning.

HBM memory chips are crucial for AI chips – which have seen a huge demand enabled by the AI boom. This has largely benefitted firms