Samsung posts record profit in Q3 on AI chip boom

Samsung Electronics announced on Thursday that its operating profit surged nearly nine times to a record high in the third quarter, propelled by a strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. Despite this remarkable feat, investors are still uncertain about the sustainability of AI spending. The world's leading memory chipmaker disclosed an operating profit of 107.4 trillion won ($80.04 billion) for the July-to-October period, matching its own prediction and contrasting with a profit of 12.2 trillion won in the same period last year.

Its rival, SK Hynix, reported robust earnings and an optimistic outlook on Wednesday, alleviating concerns that AI-driven chip earnings might wane, thus boosting the stock prices of both Samsung and SK Hynix. As anticipated by SK Hynix, Samsung highlighted that the chip supply shortage would intensify in the following year. The company pledged to pay 30 trillion won in dividends for the third quarter concluded in September, equivalent to 4,601 won per share.