Samsung profit halves on US chip curbs, AI memory delays
Samsung Electronics reported preliminary operating profit of 4.6 trillion won (S$4.3 billion) in the June quarter, a roughly 56 per cent drop from a year ago.
SEOUL – Samsung Electronics' profit fell for the first time since 2023, hurt by US curbs on China-bound AI chips and hiccups in its plans to sell cutting-edge memory to Nvidia.
South Korea's largest company reported preliminary operating profit of 4.6 trillion won (S$4.3 billion) in the June quarter, a roughly 56 per cent drop from a year ago. Analysts on average had projected a 41 per cent decline. Revenue stood at 74 trillion won.
One-time inventory-related costs contributed to the drop, and customer evaluation and shipments of its advanced memory products are proceeding, Samsung said in a statement. Operating losses in its contract chipmaking business are expected to narrow in the second half of the year on a gradual recovery in demand, Samsung said.
The company will provide a full financial statement with net income and divisional breakdowns later in July.
Samsung has been struggling to regain its footing in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, which are critical for powering Nvidia's AI accelerators. The company has yet to secure certification from Nvidia for its most advanced product – the 12-layer HBM3E – creating an unusually long lead time for rival SK Hynix in the highly lucrative space. Meanwhile, US competitor Micron Technology has been rapidly advancing to stake its own claim.
Analysts polled by Bloomberg News prior to the preliminary earnings release expected Samsung's chip division to post an operating profit of 2.7 trillion won in the second quarter, up from 1.1 trillion in the prior quarter but still significantly lower than 6.5 trillion won a year earlier.
In April, Samsung had signalled a better outlook, saying it shipped enhanced HBM3E samples to major customers and expected that product line to contribute to revenue in the second quarter. The company also said it plans to begin mass production of HBM4 chips in the second half of the year.
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Samsung is fighting to catch up to SK Hynix, which has aggressively positioned itself as Nvidia's primary HBM4 supplier. It shipped the world's first 12-layer HBM4 samples to customers ahead of schedule, followed by Micron in June, while Samsung has had to revise its 12-layer HBM3E design.
Samsung secured an order from Advanced Micro Devices, joining Micron as a supplier, according to a June release. But its failure to win early certification for HBM3E chips from Nvidia – the dominant maker of AI-supporting graphics processing units – is hurting its attempts to take significant market share.
Bernstein analysts led by Mark Li, who had previously expected Samsung's 12-layer HBM3E would be qualified by Nvidia in the second quarter, trimmed their forecast for Samsung's HBM market share, saying they now expect certification in the third quarter.
'Samsung will gradually narrow the gap vs rivals,' they wrote in a June 23 research note. 'We forecast SK Hynix remains the leader in 2027, but with others catching up and SK Hynix's edge eroding, the shares held by suppliers will be more similarly distributed then than now.'
Bernstein estimates SK Hynix holds 57 per cent of the HBM market in 2025, followed by Samsung at 27 per cent and Micron at 16 per cent. BLOOMBERG
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