Information technology Samsung significantly increases profits thanks to AI demand

Rising chip prices as a result of the strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) continue to boost the earnings of electronics giant Samsung. The company also exceeded stock market expectations.

In its quarterly outlook for the months of April to June, the market leader for memory chips, smartphones and televisions expects operating profit to have increased more than fifteenfold year-on-year.

The profit from Samsung's core businesses is expected to amount to 10.4 trillion won, according to a stock exchange release from the South Korean company. This is the equivalent of around 6.8 billion Swiss francs. In the second quarter of last year, the figure was 670 billion won.

The figures for the past quarter were well above market expectations. Samsung Electronics expects sales to increase by 23 percent to 74 trillion won or 48.2 billion Swiss francs. The company traditionally publishes more precise figures at a later date.

Like other chip manufacturers, Samsung is benefiting above all from the high demand for semiconductors, which are necessary for the development of AI. In particular, the demand for high-bandwidth chips (HBM), which are used in the development and operation of AI platforms and are also manufactured by Samsung, among others, has grown significantly.

According to market researchers' calculations, Samsung also reclaimed the top spot in the smartphone market from Apple in the first quarter of 2024.