Samsung Electronics' Q2 profit tops Nvidia's record on AI chip boom

Samsung Electronics headquarters in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province / Yonhap

Samsung Electronics once again projected record-breaking earnings for the second quarter, Tuesday, forecasting an operating profit of 89.4 trillion won ($58.4 billion) and 171 trillion won in sales in its earnings guidance, driven by a global boom in demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips.

The company said its operating profit is estimated to have surged 1,810.3 percent from a year earlier and 56.2 percent from the previous quarter, while sales also jumped 129.3 percent year-over-year and 27.7 percent from the first quarter.

The earnings estimate surpasses Samsung’s previous record quarterly operating profit of 57.23 trillion won in the first quarter of this year, extending its unprecedented streak to a third consecutive quarter of record revenue and operating profit.

The second-quarter operating profit alone exceeded the company’s combined operating profit over the past three years, which totaled 82.9 trillion won — 6.57 trillion won in 2023, 32.7 trillion won in 2024 and 43.6 trillion won in 2025.

The results also surpass the record quarterly operating profits posted by two of the most profitable tech companies globally, Nvidia and Apple. Nvidia’s record stands at about $53.5 billion posted earlier this year, while Apple’s peak is approximately $50.9 billion posted late last year, making Samsung’s latest figure unprecedented among major tech giants.

The record performance came even after excluding nearly 20 trillion won in funds appropriated for performance bonuses over the past two quarters under recent wage agreements with its employees.

Without the one‑off expense, estimates suggest quarterly operating profit would have topped the 100 trillion won mark, further underscoring the strength of the underlying business.

Samsung Electronics' foundry plant in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics

The earnings boom has been fueled by soaring demand for AI infrastructure, which has driven memory prices sharply higher amid tight supply.

This environment is expected to keep pricing favorable through the second half of the year as AI adoption expands, although rising memory procurement costs could weigh on profitability at Samsung’s Device eXperience (DX) business, which oversees smartphones, consumer electronics and other finished products. The company did not disclose divisional breakdowns.

"We estimate the Device Solutions (DS) division [in charge of chip production] posted operating profits of 90 trillion won, including 93.2 trillion won from the memory business, partially offset by a 3.2 trillion won operating loss from the System LSI and foundry businesses," Meritz Securities analyst Kim Sun-woo said.

"Compared with our latest forecast, the memory segment outperformed expectations by about 900 billion won."

Noting that the latest performance reflects a meaningful strengthening of Samsung’s ability to monetize its memory portfolio, he said Samsung Electronics has been consistently exercising pricing leadership in both DRAM and NAND, capturing a larger share of the upside from the AI-driven memory rally.

"While the foundry business is incurring higher fixed costs as Samsung adjusts orders and utilization rates to restore its competitiveness, we view this as a natural part of the investment cycle needed to support long-term growth, underpinned by the company's strong profitability in memory,” Kim said.

The company will release its final financial results with detailed earnings, including business segment performance and net profit, later this month.