Seoul Losses in the important chip division burdened Samsung in the past quarter. Consolidated profit fell by 96 percent to 600 billion won (about 420 million euros) in the period from April to June, the South Korean electronics group announced on Thursday.
The profit was largely in line with analysts’ estimates of 555 billion won. Last year, the company reported a profit of 14.1 trillion won ($9.8 billion) in its preliminary earnings report for the same period. Sales are expected to have fallen 22 percent to 60 trillion won ($47 billion) compared to the same period last year, Samsung said in the statement.
According to data provider TrendForce, prices for memory chips have fallen by 13 to 18 percent in recent months due to a lack of demand. However, the descent has slowed down recently because Samsung and some competitors had throttled production. To compensate, Samsung tries to benefit from the hype surrounding ChatGPT & Co and score points with special chips for artificial intelligence (AI). The group also offers itself as a contract manufacturer.
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