AI drives up earnings, shares pop

Shares of Samsung Electronics jumped to their highest stage since January 2021 after the South Korean tech big mentioned it expects better-than-expected revenue for the second-quarter, due to explosive demand for synthetic intelligence.

The inventory climbed as a lot as 2.24% on Friday morning, buying and selling at a excessive of 86,500 Korean received ($62.73), in accordance with LSEG information. Samsung shares closed at 84,600 received on Thursday.

Samsung issued steering on Friday, saying working revenue for the April to June quarter is projected to be about 10.4 trillion received ($7.54 billion) — that is a soar of about 1,452% from 670 billion received a yr in the past. The anticipated working revenue beat a LSEG estimate of 8.51 trillion received.

The agency additionally mentioned it expects income for the second quarter to be between 73 trillion to 75 trillion received, from 60.01 trillion received a yr in the past. That is according to the 73.7 trillion received estimated by LSEG analysts.

Enterprise for the world’s largest reminiscence chip maker rebounded as reminiscence chip costs recovered on AI optimism final yr. The South Korean electronics big noticed report losses in 2023 because the business reeled from a post-Covid hunch in demand for reminiscence chips and electronics.

Its reminiscence chips are generally present in a variety of client units together with smartphones and computer systems.

Samsung mentioned in April it expects the second quarter to be pushed principally by demand for generative AI, whereas cellular demand stays steady.

The South Korean tech big has gone huge on generative AI with its Galaxy S24 Extremely smartphone, which comes with options for enhancing photographs and looking for objects on-line through the use of AI.

“Samsung proclaims earnings shock however primarily the earnings upside is from reminiscence worth excessive. So mockingly, Samsung is lagging behind in HBM (high-bandwidth reminiscence) manufacturing. So provide to Nvidia –the qualification – has been delayed,” SK Kim, govt director of Daiwa Capital Markets, informed CNBC’s “Road Indicators Asia” on Friday.

HBM chips are superior reminiscence chips essential for AI chipsets – which have seen an enormous demand due to the AI growth. This has largely benefitted corporations such Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, the highest two reminiscence chipmakers on this planet.

Reuters in Could reported that Samsung has but to qualify to be used in Nvidia’s AI processors, as Nvidia is mentioned to be contemplating Samsung as a possible provider of HBM chips. Samsung refuted the report, saying the exams with a number of companions for HBM provide are “on observe.”

“However regardless of the delay, the corporate proclaims incomes shock is pushed by the reminiscence worth excessive,” mentioned Kim.

“So though they’re delayed within the HBM – most superior reminiscence product – they benefit from the profit from their primary capability, market share in order that they maximize the revenue with a better ASP (common promoting worth).”

Samsung is about to launch detailed second-quarter outcomes later this month.

– CNBC’s Lim Hui Jie contributed to this report.