SEOUL: Samsung Electronics reported a 55% year-on-year decline in second-quarter operating profit, as delays in shipments of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips and continued U.S. export restrictions on advanced semiconductor sales to China weighed heavily on its semiconductor business.
The world’s leading memory chip manufacturer posted an operating profit of 4.7 trillion won (US$3.37 billion) for the April–June period, marking its weakest quarterly performance in a year and a half. The result aligned closely with its earlier estimate of 4.6 trillion won, which had already dampened investor expectations.
Total revenue rose 0.7% to 74.6 trillion won, largely in line with the preliminary forecast of 74 trillion won.
Samsung’s chip division, which has historically been a key profit driver, earned 400 billion won in the quarter, a sharp drop from 6.5 trillion won during the same period last year. This marks the first time in six quarters that the division’s profit has fallen below the 1 trillion won threshold.
In its official statement, Samsung attributed the profit erosion to inventory valuation adjustments in its memory chip business and one-off expenses related to the U.S. export controls that have impacted its contract chip manufacturing operations for Chinese clients.
The extended downturn in its semiconductor segment has intensified concerns among investors about the company’s ability to stay competitive—particularly in the race to develop and supply next-generation HBM chips to tech leaders like Nvidia, which uses them in AI-powered data centers.
