Samsung posts record 89 trillion won in Q2 operating profits

Samsung Electronics’ headquarters in Seoul’s Seocho District. (Jung Yong-il/Hankyoreh)

Samsung Electronics gave investors an earnings surprise for the second quarter, reporting estimated operating profits of over 89 trillion won.Despite setting aside funds for employee bonuses, the Korean chipmaker posted another quarter of record-setting performance as the memory chip shortage sustains a price premium.Samsung’s provisional earnings figures, released on Tuesday, showed second-quarter revenue of 171 trillion won, up 129.3% from the same quarter last year. The company’s operating profit for the same period was 89.4 trillion won, a mind-boggling 1,810.3% increase over the same timeframe.Samsung’s second-quarter revenue and operating profit were 27.74% and 56.21% higher than the corresponding figures for the first quarter (133.87 trillion won and 57.23 trillion won, respectively).The profit estimate represents an earnings surprise, comfortably exceeding securities firms’ consensus prediction of 84.84 trillion won, as collated by financial data company FnGuide.This is the third quarter in a row that Samsung has set new records for revenue and operating profits.Notably, the earnings estimate accounts for funds set aside to cover bonuses negotiated by labor and management. The industry estimates that those bonuses could be worth nearly 20 trillion won, suggesting that Samsung’s pre-bonus operating profit might be over 100 trillion won.The driving force behind Samsung’s record profits is a serious shortfall in memory supply, which is pushing prices up amid surging demand for AI. With AI agents sure to proliferate in the second half of the year, memory prices seem set to keep rising.However, Samsung’s DX Division, which manufactures consumer products, is expected to post losses in the second half of the year because of the rising price of memory chips.Samsung didn’t include a breakdown of earnings by business division in the provisional figures released on Tuesday. Earnings estimates are prepared according to Korea’s version of the International Financial Reporting Standards (K-IFRS) and are provided for investors’ convenience. But they do not represent the final tally, which Samsung will release at the end of the month.By Bae Ji-hyun, staff reporterPlease direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]