South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics on Tuesday estimated that, driven by the continued strong demand for memory chips fueled by artificial intelligence (AI), its second quarter operating profit surged about 19 times compared to the same period last year.
In a statement, Samsung, the world’s largest memory chip manufacturer, said it expects operating profit for the April-June second quarter to reach 8.94 trillion won (about 240 billion ringgit), a skyrocketing increase of 1,810% compared to last year.
With the global craze for advanced memory chips used in AI data centers, South Korea’s semiconductor giant has already benefited this year and recorded historic high profits.
This boom has also fueled calls for higher wages among workers. After Samsung reached an agreement with employees on a bonus scheme, it was able to avert a large-scale strike that was scheduled for May.