- Madrid beat Villarreal but Carvajal suffers knee injury
- Madrid beat Villarreal to move level with Liga leaders Barcelona
- Monaco take top spot in Ligue 1 with win at Rennes
- French rugby player on rape charge whistled but 'serene' on return
- Madrid beat Villarreal to level Liga leaders Barca
- Thuram treble fires Inter past Torino and up to second
- 'Fight': defiant Trump jets in to site of rally shooting
- Toddler among 3 dead in migrant Channel crossings
- Mexico City's new mayor sworn in with pledges on water, housing
- Israel on alert ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Guardians maul Tigers in MLB playoff series opener
- Macron criticises Israel on Gaza, Lebanon operations
- French rugby player whistled but 'serene' on return amid ongoing rape case
- Kovacic stars as Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- Retegui hat-trick fires five-star Atalanta to hammering of Genoa
- Heavyweights Australia, England off to World Cup winning starts
- Visiting UN refugee agency chief decries 'terrible crisis' in Lebanon
- Spinners come to party as England defeat Bangladesh at T20 World Cup
- Search continues for missing in deadly Bosnia floods
- Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- France's Auradou whistled on Pau return in Perpignan loss amid ongoing rape case
- A 'forgotten' valley in storm-hit North Carolina, desperate for help
- Arsenal hit back in style after Southampton scare
- Thousands march for Palestinians ahead of Oct 7 anniversary
- Hezbollah heir apparent Safieddine out of contact after strikes
- Liverpool stay top of Premier League as Arsenal, Man City win
- In dank Tour of Emilia, Pogacar shines in rainbow jersey
- DR Congo launches mpox vaccination drive, hoping to curb outbreak
- Trump returns to site of failed assassination
- Careless Leverkusen held to Bundesliga draw
- O'Brien's 'superstar' Kyprios posts landmark win on Arc weekend
- Toddler crushed to death in migrant Channel crossing
- Liverpool suffer Alisson injury blow
- Habosi helps Racing beat Vannes before Auradou's playing return
- Thousands march in London in support of Palestinians, 1 year after Oct 7
- Israel readying response to Iran missile attack
- Schutt, Mooney help Australia beat Sri Lanka in Women's T20 World Cup
- Liverpool extend Premier League lead with win at Palace
- Djokovic 'shakes rust off' to make third round of Shanghai Masters
- 'Imperfect' PSG fighting on all fronts - Luis Enrique
- Struggling Pakistan look to thwart adaptable England
- Child 'trampled to death' in asylum seekers' Channel crossing: minister
- Gauff fights back to set up Beijing final against Muchova
- Guardiola claims Premier League won't delay season for Man City
- Israel to mark October 7 attack as Gaza war spreads
- Gauff fights back to reach China Open final
- Recovering Stokes ruled out of first Pakistan Test
- Hezbollah battles troops on border as Israel pounds Lebanon
- Alcaraz, Sinner breeze into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Bagnaia wins Japan MotoGP sprint to cut Martin's lead
Samsung Electronics forecasts major Q2 profit jump
Samsung Electronics said Friday it expects second-quarter operating profits to rise more than 15-fold on-year as chip prices bounce back and demand for generative AI continues to grow.
The firm is the flagship subsidiary of South Korean giant Samsung Group, by far the largest of the family-controlled conglomerates that dominate business in Asia's fourth-largest economy.
The world's largest memory chip maker said in a regulatory filing that its April-June operating profits were expected to rise to 10.4 trillion won ($7.54 billion), up 1,452.2 percent from 670 billion won a year earlier.
The expectation exceeded the average estimate by 25.8 percent, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency, which referenced its financial data firm.
Sales, meanwhile, are expected to rise 23.3 percent to 74 trillion won, Samsung said.
Semiconductors are the lifeblood of the global economy, used in everything from kitchen appliances and mobile phones to cars and weapons.
And demand for the advanced chips that power AI systems has skyrocketed thanks to the success of ChatGPT and other generative AI products.
"The development of AI has driven the demand for high-capacity SSDs," Taipei-based research firm TrendForce's analyst Avril Wu said, referring to a new generation of storage devices used in computers.
Due to Samsung's ability to produce higher-layer, non-volatile storage that does not require power to retain data, the firm "is expected to be one of the main beneficiaries," she told AFP.
Semiconductors are South Korea's leading export and hit $11.7 billion in March, their highest level in almost two years, accounting for a fifth of South Korea's total exports, according to figures released by the trade ministry.
The United States in April announced grants of up to $6.4 billion to Samsung to produce cutting-edge chips in Texas.
That same month, industry tracker International Data Corporation (IDC) said Samsung regained its position as the top smartphone seller, wresting back the lead from Apple.
Samsung is set to unveil its latest flagship foldable smartphones, equipped with AI features, along with a range of accessories including a new health-monitoring "smart ring", on July 10 in Paris.
The tech giant should see a "greater uptick" going into the second half of this year, also driven by its mobile experience division, "which will benefit from 'premiumisation' trend of smartphones in its key markets," Neil Shah, research vice resident at Counterpoint Research, told AFP.
Meanwhile, Samsung's "large reported net cash position continues to support its credit quality," Gloria Tsuen, vice president and senior credit officer at Moody's Ratings, said.
Samsung is expected to release its final earnings report at the end of this month.
X.Karnes--AMWN