Samsung 2H25 operating profit whopping +33% YoY.
Guess going kitchen sink on EUV just might pay off.
;-)
EUV and/or ArFi chips will be made regardless.
ASML supplies all.
Korea Joongang Daily
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Samsung's Q3 profits to beat expectations, soaring past $7B
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Samsung Electronics' third quarter operating profit is estimated to beat expectations, largely driven by increased chip prices and narrowed losses of its foundry business.
The chipmaker’s operating profit is forecast to reach as high as 10.5 trillion won ($7.46 billion), surpassing the FnGuide market consensus of 9.9 trillion won. That will be a significant jump from the 4.68 trillion won in operating profit logged in the second quarter, which was down 55 percent on year and fell far short of the market consensus.
“This is primarily because loss at the foundry unit has likely narrowed sharply from 2.9 trillion won in the second quarter to 700 billion won in the third quarter amid rising utilization ratio along with reduced one-off costs,” said Cha Yong-ho, an analyst at LS Securities, in an October report.
Higher chip prices have also contributed to the July-September earnings.
The average selling prices for DRAM and NAND chips are estimated to have risen by 7 percent and 6 percent respectively, according to Kim Hyung-tae, a researcher at Shinhan Securities, who projected Samsung Electronics’ operating profit to be 10.1 trillion won in the third quarter, in a report released on Sept. 30.
“Current inventory levels are estimated at less than 5 weeks for DRAM and less than 7 weeks for NAND, suggesting the market is entering a midterm price upcycle across both general purpose and advanced products,” Kim added.
The chipmaker’s upward profit trajectory is expected to continue throughout the second half of the year as demand for DRAM is forecast to continue until next year due to demand for servers.
The company’s shipments of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) — a type of DRAM that is widely used in AI applications — are expected to more than double in the second half of the year compared to the first half, driven by a sharp rise in orders from major American tech firms following the successful qualification for its 12-layer HBM3E product in Nvidia’s quality tests.
That is expected to push the firm’s operating profit in the second half of the year to 20.8 trillion won, a whopping increase of 33 percent on year and the highest since the same period in 2021, according to Kim Dong-won, an analyst at KB Securities.
Samsung Electronics’ stock prices have jumped accordingly, additionally backed by the company's AI-driven chip supercycle and signings of mega deals. It traded at 89,300 won on Oct. 2 — the last trading day before the weeklong Chuseok harvest holidays — which is up 30 percent from a month earlier. Analysts have revised the target price, setting it as high as 120,000 won.
The company and SK signed comprehensive partnerships on AI infrastructure with OpenAI earlier this month that would enable these major chipmakers to supply AI-specific memory chips worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
Samsung Electronics also secured a $16.5 billion supply deal with Tesla in July and announced plans in August to manufacture Apple’s next-generation chip — alleviating longstanding concerns about its lagging foundry business.
Samsung Electronics is scheduled to announce its preliminary third quarter earnings on Oct. 14.
BY JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr] |
