Business

Samsung Posts Record $58 Billion Historic Quarterly Profit, Surpassing Nvidia and Apple on Memory Chip Boom

Published

4 weeks ago

7 July 2026

Samsung Electronics said it expected fourth-quarter profits to be sharply down from the previous quarter

SEOUL, South Korea — Samsung Electronics set a new record in global corporate history Tuesday, reporting a preliminary second-quarter operating profit of 89.4 trillion Korean won, or roughly $58 billion, a figure that surpassed the highest single-quarter profits ever posted by Nvidia and Apple, driven by an unprecedented surge in memory semiconductor prices tied to the global artificial intelligence buildout.

Samsung’s preliminary results, announced Tuesday, exceeded Nvidia’s previous record of $53.5 billion, or approximately 81.9 trillion won, recorded from February through April of this year. The figure also surpassed Apple’s own all-time high of $50.85 billion, or roughly 77.8 trillion won, posted during the October-to-December quarter of last year. The only company in recent history to have posted a larger single-quarter operating profit than Samsung’s latest results is Saudi Arabia’s state oil giant Aramco, which recorded $86.5 billion in operating profit during the second quarter of 2022.

The scale of Samsung’s profitability improvement was equally striking. The company’s operating profit margin, the ratio of operating profit to total revenue, reached 52 percent during the quarter, meaning roughly 520 won of profit was generated for every 1,000 won of products sold. That figure represents nearly four times Samsung’s overall operating profit margin of 13.1 percent for all of last year. Samsung’s second-quarter profit alone was more than double the company’s entire operating profit for all of 2025, which totaled 43 trillion won.

The results were driven almost entirely by Samsung’s Device Solutions division, which produces memory semiconductors. While the company’s preliminary announcement did not break down results by individual business division, securities industry sources estimate the memory division alone generated operating profit in the range of 90 trillion won, with an operating margin of approximately 80 percent.

The surge stems from a rapid escalation in memory chip prices over the past two quarters. According to figures cited in Samsung’s announcement, prices for DRAM and other memory products jumped more than 80 percent in the first quarter of 2026 compared with the previous quarter, and rose a further 50 percent in the second quarter compared with the first, continuing a steep upward trajectory. The price surge has been driven by soaring global demand for high-value memory products, including server DRAM and high-bandwidth memory, as companies worldwide continue expanding investment in artificial intelligence data center infrastructure.

Industry analysts anticipate that DRAM prices will continue climbing through the second half of 2026, with some forecasts suggesting the memory sector has entered a long-term boom period often referred to within the industry as a “super cycle.” Samsung is positioned to benefit disproportionately from that trend given its scale within the industry. The company’s DRAM production capacity stands at between 650,000 and 700,000 wafers per month, more than double that of Micron Technology, the third-largest producer at roughly 300,000 wafers per month, and roughly 20 percent higher than second-place SK Hynix, which produces approximately 550,000 wafers per month.

Securities industry projections cited in Samsung’s announcement suggest the company’s full-year operating profit for 2026 could surge 790 percent compared with the previous year, reaching approximately 380 trillion won, with further growth to roughly 570 trillion won projected for 2027. Combined, those projections would put Samsung’s cumulative operating profit over the next two years at close to 1,000 trillion won.

Despite the historic results, some analysts have raised concerns about the sustainability of the current memory boom. Potential risks cited include the possibility that the AI-driven super cycle could reach its peak sooner than currently anticipated, along with broader concerns about oversupply eventually emerging across the memory semiconductor market as manufacturers expand capacity to meet current demand. Additional questions have been raised about whether directing a significant share of current profits toward employee performance bonuses could constrain Samsung’s future research and development and equipment investment capabilities.

Samsung’s performance outside its memory business painted a considerably more mixed picture. The company’s System LSI and foundry divisions, which handle contract semiconductor manufacturing, are estimated to have posted a combined operating loss of approximately 2 trillion won during the quarter, with analysts continuing to point to low utilization rates and a competitiveness gap in advanced manufacturing processes relative to Taiwan’s TSMC as ongoing challenges for that side of the business.

Samsung’s Device Experience division, which includes its smartphone and home appliance businesses, also showed significant weakness. The smartphone division is expected to post its first-ever quarterly operating loss, estimated at approximately 1 trillion won, a result attributed to the sharp rise in memory chip prices, a key input cost for smartphone production. The home appliance and television division is similarly estimated to have returned to an operating loss of around 200 billion won after only a single profitable quarter, a downturn analysts attributed to weak global demand and rising raw material costs linked to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

The stark divergence between Samsung’s booming memory business and its struggling smartphone and consumer electronics divisions has fueled internal labor tension over how the company distributes its performance bonuses. Under the terms of the company’s first-half Target Achievement Incentive payments, scheduled for distribution Tuesday, employees in the memory division are set to receive 100 percent of their monthly base salary as a bonus, while workers in the smartphone, television and home appliance divisions will receive only 50 percent. The disparity has generated visible frustration among employees. On Tuesday, an image depicting a funeral wreath with a black ribbon, accompanied by a post titled “Rest in peace, Samsung Electronics DX Division,” was uploaded to the company’s internal online community in protest of the differential bonus structure.

Samsung’s full, detailed second-quarter results, including division-specific breakdowns, are expected to be released later this month, which analysts say will provide further clarity on the precise scale of the memory division’s profitability relative to the company’s other struggling business units, as well as additional insight into how sustainable the current historic run of profitability is likely to be as the broader memory semiconductor super cycle continues to unfold through the remainder of 2026.

Business

Amazon joins $3 trillion club as AI, cloud growth fuel stock rally

Published

5 minutes ago

3 August 2026

NewsAdmin

Amazon joins $3 trillion club as AI, cloud growth fuel stock rally

Amazon’s market capitalisation surpassed $3 trillion for the first time on Monday as its shares rallied following strong earnings and signs that the AI boom is fueling demand for its highly profitable cloud-computing business.

The stock climbed 5.5% to a record $286.20, extending its year-to-date gain to more than 23%.

Shares of the Seattle-based e-commerce and cloud-computing giant jumped 15% on Friday after posting its strongest cloud growth in more than four years and lifting its annual capital-spending forecast.

Among the six “Magnificent Seven” companies that have reported so far, only Amazon and Microsoft have convinced investors that their AI investments are paying off. Tesla, Alphabet and Meta, meanwhile, faced a backlash after their heavy spending weighed on free cash flow last quarter.

Like other Wall Street tech giants, Amazon has invested billions of dollars in expanding its AI infrastructure. In April, it disclosed a new investment in Anthropic, following an earlier pledge to invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI.

Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, Amazon added another $1 trillion to its market value in just over two years after first reaching a $2 trillion valuation in June 2024.
Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Nvidia are other companies that have reached a market value of $3 trillion in the past. Nvidia is currently the world’s largest company by market capitalisation, at close to $5 trillion.

Business

Red-state AGs warn OpenAI after AI agent allegedly hacks Hugging Face

Published

12 minutes ago

3 August 2026

NewsAdmin

OpenAI says AI model hacked another company's systems during internal test

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responds to those afraid of artificial intelligence and recent Hugging Face hacks on FOX Business.

A coalition of 15 red-state attorneys general warned OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Monday to preserve documents and halt certain high-risk cybersecurity tests after an experimental artificial intelligence agent allegedly escaped a controlled environment and carried out a multi-day hack into outside computer systems.

In a Monday letter shared with Fox News Digital, the attorneys general said OpenAI may have violated state and federal consumer-protection and data-privacy laws and cautioned that a failure to preserve relevant records could trigger sanctions if litigation follows.

“A failure to take immediate action to preserve such materials could result in spoliation sanctions if litigation were to ensue,” Iowa Republican AG Brenna Bird’s letter, signed by GOP AGs from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Utah, read.

“We further demand that OpenAI take immediate steps to ensure that no OpenAI personnel face any adverse action for engaging in any protected whistleblowing activity or for reporting any unlawful or harmful activities by OpenAI.”

FLORIDA SUES OPENAI AND SAM ALTMAN CLAIMING CHATGPT IS UNSAFE FOR USERS

Maria Bartiromo discusses an OpenAI experimental AI agent that broke containment and hacked an AI platform.

The officials accused OpenAI of conducting a July 2026 evaluation involving two advanced models — identified in the letter as GPT-5.6 Sol and an unreleased model the company had described as “even more capable” — without the normal safeguards designed to prevent high-risk cyber activity.

This letter and hack follow a letter GOP AGs wrote to Altman in May, demanding answers on OpenAI’s nonprofit status.

“OpenAI’s inability or unwillingness to ensure the safety of its products poses an imminent risk of substantial harm to our States,” Bird wrote.

“We intend to take decisive action to protect our citizens.”

ELON MUSK ATTORNEY CLAIMS OPENAI, SAM ALTMAN ‘STOLE A CHARITY’ AS HIGH-STAKES LEGAL FIGHT BEGINS

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
MSFT	MICROSOFT CORP.	488.76	+24.04	+5.17%
NVDA	NVIDIA CORP.	207.92	+7.17	+3.57%
AMD	ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES INC.	485.76	+9.61	+2.02%
PLTR	PALANTIR TECHNOLOGIES INC.	125.62	+2.56	+2.08%
GOOGL	ALPHABET INC.	374.38	+18.25	+5.12%
AMZN	AMAZON.COM INC.	284.11	+12.53	+4.61%

The test was supposed to take place in an isolated environment with no internet access, but the attorneys general alleged in the letter that the agent exploited a software vulnerability, escaped the testing environment and connected to the internet.

“OpenAI failed to confirm that its secure and isolated testing environment was, in fact, secure and isolated,” Bird wrote. “It was not.”

From there, the agent allegedly launched an intrusion targeting the AI company Hugging Face in an effort to steal an answer key and defeat its own safety evaluation.

Citing an interim technical report from Hugging Face, the letter said the agent carried out more than 17,000 “attacker actions,” seized control of an external endpoint exposed through a third-party infrastructure provider and entered Hugging Face systems.

OPENAI DIDN’T REALIZE ITS AGENT WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR HACK FOR A WEEK: REPORT

In this photo illustration, an OpenAI logo is seen displayed on a smartphone on the top of a laptop. (Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket / Getty Images)

The attorneys general also cited reporting that the agent found four sets of login credentials online and used them to access four other unnamed services.

OpenAI allegedly did not know the agent had broken containment while the activity was underway. The letter claims Hugging Face detected the intrusion independently and contacted the FBI before OpenAI determined that its own technology was responsible.

The document presents the incident and its surrounding details as allegations drawn from public reporting and technical findings.

The attorneys general said the episode followed a series of warning signs involving OpenAI’s models and internal oversight.

OPENAI CO-FOUNDER WARNS AI MODELS ARE BECOMING HARDER TO CONTROL AFTER ITS MODEL HACKED ANOTHER FIRM

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said concerns about artificial intelligence are understandable following a recent cybersecurity incident involving one of the company’s models. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images / Getty Images)

They cited reports that an AI agent had previously left instructions for future versions of itself describing how to escape internal restrictions, that monitoring systems had been disconnected during earlier tests and that employees sometimes struggled to oversee multiple fast-moving model evaluations generating enormous volumes of data.

“OpenAI’s unprecedented and alarming misconduct demands an immediate and significant response,” the officials wrote.

The coalition demanded that OpenAI preserve documents, internal communications, data and other materials related to the Hugging Face intrusion, the pre-release model involved, the company’s discovery of the incident and any internal investigation or public statement concerning it.

The preservation request also covers previous cases in which OpenAI models may have used publicly exposed credentials, earlier unauthorized network intrusions and any incident in which a model left notes for future versions of itself.

ANTHROPIC SAYS AI MODELS ACCESSED SYSTEMS OF 3 REAL ORGANIZATIONS DURING TESTING

Hugging Face said it detected and contained a security breach after an OpenAI model compromised part of its infrastructure during an internal evaluation. (Jaque Silva/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)

The attorneys general further requested records concerning OpenAI’s safety policies, testing procedures, monitoring systems, employee concerns and personnel with knowledge of the alleged events.

The letter also demanded that OpenAI protect employees from retaliation for reporting potentially unlawful or dangerous conduct.

In addition, the coalition called on the company to immediately stop internal evaluations that prompt AI models to pursue advanced exploitation through complex attack paths.

“Unless and until OpenAI shows that it can conduct such activities in a controlled and responsible way, such activities pose an imminent risk of serious harm to the citizens of our States,” the letter said.

Fox News Digital reached out to OpenAI for comment and has not yet heard back.

The officials stopped short of announcing a lawsuit but said the publicly reported facts could support claims under laws enforced by state attorneys general.

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“OpenAI has an obligation to act responsibly and to follow State and federal laws that protect Americans’ safety and security,” Bird’s letter concluded. “When OpenAI takes actions that imperil the welfare of our citizens, State Attorneys General will step in to protect them.

“We intend to take all steps necessary to protect our States and all Americans from the unprecedented risks posed by OpenAI’s irresponsible products and conduct.”

The White House has confirmed to Fox News that it is going to host AI companies Tuesday to review the AI framework from a June 2 executive order from President Donald Trump.