The entrance to Samsung Electronics’ campus in Suwon, South Korea. The memory chipmaker posted record operating profit during the second quarter of this year. Photo by Hyojoon Jeon / UPI
July 9 (UPI) -- South Korea's Samsung Electronics has become one of the world's most profitable companies after posting $59 billion in operating profit for the second quarter of this year.
Boosted by soaring semiconductor prices over the past year, the profit of the world's leading memory chipmaker, which disclosed Tuesday, surpassed the previous quarterly records set by Apple and NVIDIA.
Market observers said Thursday that the robust earnings momentum of Samsung Electronics is likely to continue as demand for memory chips outpaces supply amid persistent capacity constraints.
"Because of limited production capacity, memory supply will fall well short of matching demand growth at least through the fourth quarter of next year," Meritz Securities analyst Kim Sun-woo said in a report. "The memory industry has not even reached the midpoint of its current cycle."
