Samsung Electronics (stock code: 005930, down 6.92%) released a performance outlook. Benefiting from the explosion in demand for artificial intelligence chips, the company's second-quarter operating profit is expected to surge 19 times year-on-year, continuing the momentum of consecutive quarterly profit record highs; however, this bright performance guidance did not drive the stock price to strengthen.
Since the fourth quarter of 2025, Samsung has set new historical records in revenue and operating profit for several consecutive quarters.
Many analysts said that since the fourth quarter of 2025, the South Korean technology company's revenue and operating profit have continued to reach historical peaks, and its chip business segment will further drive substantial profit growth this year. The core driving force is the strong demand for AI chips.
Samsung released a preliminary performance forecast on Tuesday, with operating profit in the April-June quarter expected to hit a record high of about 89.4 trillion won (equivalent to $58.47 billion), up 56% from the previous quarter's record high.
The forecast was higher than the market consensus of 85.054 trillion won, according to FactSet.
The company also forecast quarterly revenue to double year-on-year to a record 171 trillion won.
As the world's largest memory chip manufacturer, while Samsung has delivered impressive results, the market has always been worried that the growth in capital expenditures related to AI computing power infrastructure will be difficult to sustain in the long term. Samsung's stock price doubled from April to June, but this month investor concerns resurfaced, and the stock price's upward momentum came to an abrupt end.
Samsung's stock price fell as much as 10% during the session on Tuesday, closing down 6.9% at 296,000 won. Analysts said many investors took advantage of earnings exceeding expectationsTake profits, rather than continuing to chase higher.
Mirae Asset Securities analyst Kim Joo-yoon said in a research report: "Even though the second-quarter performance hit a record high, Samsung's stock price still fell. The core reason was that the funds were realized and floating profits were realized."
Despite Tuesday's sharp pullback, the stock is still up nearly 150% for the year.
Some analysts pointed out that if the special bonuses issued by the chip department early next year are not included, Samsung's actual operating profit will be higher than this forecast. In May this year, Samsung reached an agreement to pay 10.5% of the semiconductor division's annual operating profit as a special bonus, provided that the company reaches specified profit targets.
Citi analyst Peter Lee said before the release of this performance guidance that Samsung's recent stock price fall was only a technical correction. The stock has enjoyed huge gains during the year, boosted by continued strength in server memory prices driven by AI central processors.
He said: "The fundamentals of the memory chip industry remain solid, and strong demand for AI processors has driven server memory prices to continue to outperform the market." He raised Samsung's 2026 full-year operating profit forecast from 334 trillion won to 401 trillion won.
In June this year, Samsung announced that it would spend about 400 trillion won to build a new semiconductor industry cluster in southwestern South Korea and increase its chip and artificial intelligence tracks to cope with the continued expansion of market demand.
Samsung will release its full quarterly financial report later this month, disclosing profit data broken down by each business segment.