Samsung Electronics Surpasses 100 Trillion Won in Operating Profit, Overtaking Nvidia

[Anchor]

Samsung Electronics has posted a preliminary operating profit of 89.4 trillion won for the second quarter, earning more in just three months than it did in the previous three years combined. When accounting for nearly 20 trillion won in provisions for performance bonuses, the company has effectively ushered in an era of 100 trillion won in operating profit—a milestone that even tech giants like Nvidia and Apple have yet to reach.

Reporter Jeong Seong-jin has the story.

[Reporter]

Samsung Electronics announced in a regulatory filing that its revenue for the second quarter of this year reached 171 trillion won, with an operating profit of 89.4 trillion won.

The operating profit represents a staggering increase of over 1,800% compared to a year ago, marking the third consecutive quarter of record-breaking performance.

In just one quarter, the company earned more than 6 trillion won more than the combined operating profit of the past three years.

This figure surpasses the peak quarterly operating profits of global big tech companies such as Nvidia and Apple, making it the highest record among private companies worldwide, excluding the Saudi Arabian state-owned oil company Aramco.

This performance excludes an estimated 17 trillion won in provisions for first and second-quarter performance bonuses, leading to assessments that the company has effectively achieved an operating profit exceeding 100 trillion won.

The record-breaking performance was, as expected, driven by the semiconductor division.

As AI big tech companies continue to expand their astronomical investments, the semiconductor shortage persists, driving prices higher.

Samsung Electronics successfully became the first to mass-produce the 6th generation High Bandwidth Memory (HBM4), expanding its share of the high-value market, while also benefiting from price hikes caused by supply shortages in general-purpose memory such as DRAM.

[Interview: Ahn Ki-hyun, Executive Director at the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association: Demand for HBM has continued to grow, while demand for general DRAM remains steady but supply has decreased. Consequently, a supply shortage has occurred in both areas.]

While some projections suggest that the DRAM price increase rate may slow to around 15% in the third quarter, analysts believe the upward trend in earnings will not break, as the market remains in a state of supply shortage with prices already nearly 10 times higher than last year.

[Interview: Kim Yang-paeng, Senior Researcher at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade: Semiconductors have become more than just core components; they are now a powerful industrial foundation, moving beyond essential goods to becoming infrastructure.]

The market is offering optimistic forecasts that if the current trend continues, annual operating profit could reach 370 trillion won this year and 500 trillion won next year.

(Video Editing: Kim Ho-jin, Design: Park Tae-young)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.