View of Samsung Electronics' Hwaseong campus, Thursday, a day after management and union leaders signed a tentative wage agreement hours before a planned walkout was set to begin. (Im Se-jun/The Korea Herald) Samsung Electronics is forecast to post its strongest quarterly results on record in the second quarter, as a memory market reshaped by AI demand keeps prices climbing even as the wage settlement that pulled the company back from a strike still awaits a ratification vote closing Wednesday.According to financial data provider FnGuide, the analyst consensus for the April-June quarter stands at 165.48 trillion won ($109.7 billion) in revenue and 85.25 trillion won in operating profit, up 121.9 percent and 1,723.2 percent, respectively, from a year earlier. The latter figure partly reflects a depressed year-earlier base.The forecast would extend the run that delivered a record 57.2 trillion won operating profit in the first quarter, when the chip division generated 94 percent of company-wide earnings.That division remains the engine. Heavy AI infrastructure spending by global tech firms has driven demand for high-bandwidth memory and the gains are spreading across the product line. With fabrication capacity concentrated on HBM and high-end server memory, output of conventional DRAM has tightened, lifting even commodity chip prices. Analysts expect DRAM average selling prices to rise 45 percent from the previous quarter, with NAND flash up 50 percent.Ryu Young-ho, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities, said the spread of agentic AI is making the current memory cycle increasingly durable, adding that a rise in long-term supply agreements has strengthened mid-term earnings stability. Such multi-year contracts with major tech customers mark a break from an industry long defined by violent boom-and-bust swings.The brighter outlook rests on a tentative wage deal struck last Wednesday, hours before a planned walkout. Union members are voting through May 2. Passage is considered likely, though a faction in the consumer-device division is campaigning against the deal over a pay-bonus gap with chip-division staff. A rejection would return Samsung to strike-eligible status.For the full year, the company is projected to report record revenue of 684.16 trillion won and operating profit of 344.97 trillion won.