Samsung set to report huge profit jump thanks to AI chip demand

Samsung Electronics, the world's largest maker of memory chips, is expected to report a massive jump in profits for the spring of 2026. The South Korean tech giant likely earned about 86 trillion won — roughly $72.6 billion — between April and June. That would be about 18 times more than what it earned in the same period a year ago, mostly because of soaring demand for chips used in artificial intelligence, or AI.

Samsung is expected to officially share this estimate on July 7. If the numbers hold up, it would be the third quarter in a row that the company broke its own profit record. That kind of streak shows just how strong the demand for AI technology has become around the world.

The main reason behind Samsung's big profits is a shortage of memory chips. AI systems need enormous amounts of memory to work, and chip factories cannot make them fast enough to keep up. This gap between supply and demand has pushed chip prices much higher, which means Samsung earns more money for each chip it sells.

Not all AI is the same, and the newest kind is called 'agentic AI.' Unlike older AI programs that mainly learned from large amounts of data, agentic AI can handle many steps in a task at the same time. That means it needs even more memory and storage space, which is great news for a company like Samsung that makes both.

Samsung sells memory chips to some of the biggest tech companies in the world, including Nvidia, Google, and Apple. A research firm called Citi found that prices for two key types of memory — DRAM and NAND — rose 44 percent and 53 percent in just one quarter. Those big price increases added up to enormous extra revenue for Samsung and its rivals.

The memory chip boom has also sent stock prices soaring. Samsung's share price rose 158 percent in 2026, while rivals SK Hynix and Micron climbed even higher — 273 percent and 242 percent respectively. All three companies are now worth more than $1 trillion each, which puts them among the most valuable businesses in the world.

However, there is one thing that could make Samsung's profits look a little smaller than expected. In May, Samsung and its workers reached a deal to avoid a big strike. Part of that deal gives chip workers special bonuses worth 10.5 percent of the chip division's profits, and those costs could affect the final earnings report.

Looking ahead, some investors are worried about what could slow down the memory boom. The biggest risk, analysts say, is that big tech companies might slow down their spending on AI equipment. Right now, memory chips make up about 52 percent of what cloud computing companies spend on building new systems, and some wonder if that level of spending is really sustainable.

Samsung and its rival SK Hynix are betting big that AI demand will keep growing. Together, they have pledged to invest 3,200 trillion won — about $2.7 trillion — to build more chip factories in South Korea. Samsung plans to spread that investment out from 2026 to 2040, believing the world will become more reliant on AI.

There is also pressure on Samsung's phone business. Because memory chip prices are rising, it costs Samsung more to build its own smartphones, and the company may need to raise prices again in the second half of the year. Samsung will release its full, detailed earnings report later in July.