Samsung's profit in the second quarter soared 19 times to reach 89 trillion won due to the demand for AI memory.

      Samsung Electronics provided an estimate for its second-quarter operating profit at around 89.4 trillion won ($58.4 billion) on Tuesday, which is approximately 19 times higher than the same period last year and, by most assessments, represents the largest quarterly operating profit recorded by any technology company to date.

      This marks Samsung's third consecutive record-breaking quarter, surpassing the approximately 84 trillion won that analysts had anticipated—a significant increase that TNW had previously identified as an 18-fold rise during the estimation phase.

      Revenue reached around 171 trillion won, more than double the 74.57 trillion won earned a year ago, though it slightly fell short of the 173 trillion won some analysts had predicted. Operating profit increased by about 56% compared to the first quarter and nearly 1,810% year-on-year, based on the 4.68 trillion won from the second quarter of 2025, which was a time when the memory sector was more of a hindrance than a growth driver due to changes brought on by AI in the memory market.

      The driving factor behind this growth is pricing. According to Citi Research, contract prices for DRAM increased by approximately 44% quarter-on-quarter, while NAND flash prices went up by around 53%, as the demand for chips used in AI servers consistently outpaced the supply from the three major memory manufacturers.

      High-bandwidth memory, the stacked DRAM that accompanies Nvidia’s accelerators, continues to be the most lucrative segment, and Samsung has devoted much of the past year to closing the gap with SK Hynix in this area.

      A pivotal moment occurred in September 2025 when Samsung received Nvidia's approval for its 12-layer HBM3E after overcoming several technical challenges related to thermal performance. This advancement provided access to the customer whose spending influences the entire sector, despite SK Hynix's quicker development of the next generation and its multi-year HBM4 agreement with Nvidia.

      What differentiates this cycle is its wide-ranging nature. The price increase has extended well beyond HBM to conventional DRAM and NAND, as AI workloads transition from training clusters to regular server and storage expansions that support large-scale inference.

      A similar trend was evident in Micron’s quadrupled revenue in June, demonstrating an industry that is struggling to produce memory quickly enough to meet demand.

      However, there is a caveat in these figures. Samsung’s guidance reportedly includes a bonus provision amounting to tens of trillions of won. Excluding that, the underlying operating profit would have surpassed 100 trillion won, according to the Seoul Economic Daily. These payouts have become substantial enough to trigger ongoing debates about the division of the bonus and have also been factored into wage discussions by South Korea’s central bank.

      Investors didn't fully embrace the news, as Samsung's shares dropped by more than 6% on the announcement day, indicative of profit-taking following a prior rally that had already accounted for much of the positive news. Thus, a result this significant does not equate to an unexpected upside, and the revenue shortfall provided ammunition for skeptics.

      The guidance is preliminary and contains only overall sales and profit figures; a detailed divisional breakdown will be included with the full results on July 30. That report will clarify the revenue sourced from the chip division versus what was recaptured by the smartphone and display units, which purchase limited memory at the same elevated prices that Samsung applies to its other customers.

      Based on current trends, the company's total profit for the year could rival the amount earned over the past four decades together, illustrating how profoundly a single demand cycle has transformed the business landscape.