Overview

• Samsung projects second-quarter operating profit of about 4.6 trillion won, down 55.9% year-on-year from 10.44 trillion won
• The company attributed the plunge to inventory replenishment costs and U.S. restrictions on AI chip exports to China
• Shipments of its HBM3E 12-high memory chips to Nvidia remain delayed even as initial supplies to AMD have commenced
• Samsung’s board approved a 3.91 trillion won share repurchase to bolster its stock and deliver value to shareholders
• Despite current setbacks, the firm expects premium high-bandwidth memory demand and utilization rates to recover in the third quarter