Samsung Electronics expects operating profit to reach 10.1 trillion won (approximately 50.6 billion yuan) in the third quarter of this year, a 10% year-on-year increase and the highest level since 2022. This significant growth is primarily due to rising memory chip prices driven by server demand, while also boosting sales as customers rebuild inventory. Analysts note that the rebound in traditional memory chip prices offset weak sales of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, as Samsung has yet to supply its latest HBM products to Nvidia.
HBM chips are crucial for AI development, as their vertically stacked chip design enables low power consumption and large-scale data processing. While Samsung is currently lagging behind in HBM, AI-related investments such as those from hyperscale cloud providers and ChatGPT have unexpectedly boosted memory chip demand, increasing general server workloads and driving up traditional memory chip prices. TrendForce data shows that prices for some DRAM chips, widely used in servers, smartphones, and personal computers, rose a staggering 171.8% in the third quarter compared to the same period last year.
Despite strong performance in its traditional memory business, delays in supplying Samsung's latest 12-layer HBM3E chips to Nvidia have impacted its profits and stock price. However, market confidence in Samsung's stock and chip business is growing as supply agreements with major customers such as OpenAI and Tesla are underway. Samsung's stock price has risen over 43% since the announcement of its chip supply agreement with Tesla in July. Earlier this month, during OpenAI CEO Altman's visit to South Korea, Samsung, SK Hynix, and OpenAI also announced a partnership to provide advanced memory chips for the Stargate project. Samsung will release revenue and operating profit forecasts on Tuesday, with full financial results to be released later this month.
