Samsung sets global quarterly profit record

Samsung Electronics posted 89.4 trillion won in operating profit for the second quarter, setting a new record for quarterly operating earnings among private companies worldwide. The performance overtook the previous high set by Nvidia, the world's largest artificial intelligence chipmaker by market value. The reported figure includes an estimated 17 trillion won to 19 trillion won set aside for employee performance bonuses, meaning the company's operating profit before those provisions is estimated to have exceeded 106 trillion won.

Samsung Electronics said in a regulatory filing Tuesday that preliminary consolidated revenue for the April-June quarter reached 171 trillion won, while operating profit came to 89.4 trillion won. Revenue soared 129.31% from a year earlier, while operating profit surged 1,810.26%. From the previous quarter, revenue increased 27.74% and operating profit climbed 56.21%.

The result surpassed Nvidia's record quarterly operating profit of $53.783 billion, or about 81.7 trillion won, reported for the February-April quarter this year. Even including state-owned enterprises, only Saudi Aramco has ever posted a higher quarterly operating profit, earning $86.531 billion, or about 132 trillion won, in the second quarter of 2022, when oil prices surged following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Samsung generated nearly 1 trillion won in operating profit every day during the 91-day quarter, averaging roughly 980 billion won a day. The quarterly total also exceeded the company's cumulative operating profit for the entire three-year period from 2023 through 2025, which amounted to 82.894 trillion won. It also came in about 3.89 trillion won, or 4.55%, above the consensus estimate compiled by securities firms.

The second-quarter results also include a one-time provision of roughly 17 trillion won to 19 trillion won for special performance bonuses in the semiconductor division. Samsung did not record the provision in the first quarter because labor-management negotiations were still underway, instead recognizing the entire amount in the second quarter.

The record-setting performance was driven by a memory chip supercycle fueled by the artificial intelligence boom, which sent memory prices sharply higher. Although Samsung did not disclose earnings by business division, market analysts said the semiconductor business generated the overwhelming majority of the company's operating profit.

With the semiconductor upcycle widely expected to continue into next year, major brokerage firms forecast Samsung's full-year operating profit at between 360 trillion won and 388 trillion won. Samsung Securities said quarterly operating profit exceeding 100 trillion won could continue for more than a year.


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