Shares in Samsung slump despite 19-fold surge in profits

(Sharecast News) - Shares in Samsung Electronics fell heavily on Tuesday, despite the South Korean chipmaker seeing second-quarter profits surge 1800%. In a brief pre-earnings update, Samsung said that operating profits in the three months to June end were estimated to have soared to 89.4trn won (£43.7bn) from 4.7trn won a year previously. Revenues were slated to rocket 129% at 171trn won.

Consensus had been for profits closer to 87.3trn.

The rapid rollout out of data centres, which are required to fuel artificial intelligence, has seen demand for memory chips soar and lift prices to record highs. However, shares in Samsung fell sharply on Tuesday as increasingly nervous investors questioned how sustainable the AI boom is. Having initially slid 10%, by 0830 BST the stock was trading 7% lower.

Rivals were also caught up in the sell-off, with South Korea's SK Hynix down 6% and Japan's Kioxia Holdings slumping 11%.

Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said: "The wider issue is whether this is a new chapter for investor reaction, related not to any weakness in demand or immediate profitability, but rather whether the level of earnings can be maintained in order to repay the trillions of dollars which have been funnelled into AI investment by the hyper scalers.

"The Samsung share price weakness could also be in part the result of investors locking in some profits after a run which has seen the stock rise by 129% in the year so far."

Samsung is due to publish second-quarter results on 30 July.