Samsung Electronics said it has likely reported 23 percent growth in sales revenue to approximately 74 trillion Korean won or $53.65 billion for the second quarter of 2024.
Samsung Electronics’s sales revenue was 71.92 trillion Korean won for the first quarter of 2024 and 60.01 trillion Korean won for the second quarter of 2023. This indicates that Samsung Electronics has made significant improvement in sales in Q2 2024. Samsung Electronics will share its final quarterly results later.
Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest memory chip, smartphone and TV maker, has also reported that its like operating profit would be 10.4 trillion Korean won ($7.54 billion) for the first quarter of 2024. This compares with operating profit of 6.61 trillion Korean won for the first quarter of 2024 and 0.67 trillion Korean won for the second quarter of 2023.
Samsung’s 15-fold rise in its second-quarter operating profit is due to rebounding semiconductor prices driven by the artificial intelligence boom.
The company, which is facing strike by employees, is due to release detailed second-quarter earnings on July 31.
Samsung’s semiconductor division likely posted its second consecutive quarterly profit, improving on the first quarter, as memory chip prices keep rising from a mid-2022 to end-2023 trough that was caused by weak post-pandemic demand for gadgets that use the chips.
Demand for high-end DRAM chips such as high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips used in AI chipsets, as well as chips used in data centre servers and gadgets that run AI services have helped buoy chip prices, analysts said.
Memory chip prices jumped by about 13 percent to 18 percent during the second quarter versus the previous quarter for DRAM chips used in tech devices and 15 percent to 20 percent for NAND Flash chips used for data storage, according to data provider TrendForce.
The climb in memory chip prices may slow in third quarter, with TrendForce forecasting a 5 percent to 10 percent price hike for both conventional DRAM and NAND Flash chips, as demand for older, legacy chips from the consumer electronics market remains lacklustre.
AI-driven demand for high-end chips such as HBM and solid-state drives (SSDs) will outperform the rest of the market. Samsung has been lagging behind South Korean rival SK Hynix in the supply of high-end HBM chips to customers like Nvidia, Reuters news report said.
