Shares of Samsung Electronics crashed nearly 10% on Tuesday, pulling down South Korea's benchmark index Kospi more than 8%, even after the world's largest memory chipmaker forecast a 19-fold surge in its second quarter operating profit.The sharp drop in Samsung’s share price may have been driven by concerns about the durability of the AI-driven chip boom. The company estimated its operating profit for the period between April and June at 89.4 trillion won ($58.44 billion), beating an LSEG SmartEstimate of 87.3 trillion won. The tech giant reported a profit of 4.7 trillion won a year earlier. Revenue would likely jump 129% year-on-year (YoY) to 171 trillion won, it said.Why did Samsung shares crash 10% today?Some analysts attributed the sharp crash in Samsung's share price to higher market expectations that were triggered by record memory chip prices. "Samsung's strong earnings were widely expected and had largely been priced in after its shares rallied ahead of the results," Reuters quoted Albert Yong, a managing partner at Petra Capital Management."Investors remain concerned about the sustainability of the AI boom and the risk of slower AI infrastructure spending by major U.S. technology firms,” Yong added. Notably, memory chip prices have seen sharp surges during the quarter as AI spending expanded beyond high-bandwidth memory (HBM) into conventional DRAM and NAND products.The surge in Samsung’s profit expectations comes even as it set aside a sizeable portion of funds for bonuses to its semiconductor ⁠workers, as ‌agreed in a wage deal in May linking their pay to operating profit. "Samsung posted better-than-expected earnings despite bonus-related provisions, as memory prices rose sharply," Reuters quoted Lee Min-hee, an analyst at BNK Investment & Securities.Also read: Samsung appliance workers to stage a rally protesting chip workers' wage dealCiti Research last week said average selling prices for DRAM and NAND rose 44% and 53% quarter-on-quarter, respectively, in the second quarter. While Samsung's memory business is expected to post another quarter of strong earnings, analysts quoted by the report said losses at ‌its foundry and logic chip (LSI) businesses are likely to widen because bonus expenses are allocated across the semiconductor division.Also read: Japan's Nikkei falls as Samsung-led chip selloff weighs on regional tech stocksRisk of slowdown in AI investmentSamsung is set to announce detailed earnings on July 30, including a breakdown of results of each of its business divisions. In the future, the biggest risk to the memory boom would likely be a slowdown in AI infrastructure investment.Amid the seesaw market frenzy over artificial intelligence, Jefferies' Global Head of Equity Strategy, Chris Wood, recently cautioned that the stock market may soon begin to push back against the significant spending by Wall Street's hyperscalers, which he predicts will be "massive capital destruction". In his latest 'Greed & Fear' report, Wood highlighted that the four major US hyperscalers, including Microsoft, Facebook-parent Meta, Amazon and Google-parent Alphabet, have issued bonds worth $144 billion so far this year, compared with $83 billion in the entire 2025. The shares of these four hyperscalers, meanwhile, have rallied up to 180% since the beginning of 2023, outperforming the S&P 500 index by 44%.Also read: Jefferies' Christopher Wood warns Microsoft, Meta, and Alphabet AI spending may backfireHe highlighted that the cycle of AI frenzy is most likely to end not because the hyperscalers suddenly rein in their spending but because markets start to push back against that spending. “And that spending is not just cash but also, increasingly, borrowed money,” he added. Any such pause in AI infra spending may impact memory chip makers like Samsung.Morgan Stanley also noted that clear ⁠evidence that ‌AI products can generate returns that justify the spending is yet to be seen, despite Alphabet and Amazon have committed billions to scale up their AI infrastructure, skyrocketing the share prices of semiconductor companies.Also read: AI investors may pivot to hyperscalers from chipmakers, Morgan Stanley saysKospi tumbled more than 8% today to drop to 7,404.48. While Samsung shares crashed nearly 10%, its rival SK Hynix saw a sharper decline in share price, crashing around 11% on Tuesday.(With inputs from agencies)(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)