South Korea's Samsung Electronics said Thursday that its operating profits soared 277 percent on-year to $6.6 billion but missed expectations as it struggled to leverage demand for chips used in artificial intelligence servers. The world's largest memory chip maker posted an operating profit of 9.
18 trillion won ($6.6 billion) "largely due to one-off costs". It also warned in a statement that "the strength of the Korean won against the US dollar resulted in a negative impact on company-wide operating profit".
Although operating profit nearly tripled compared with a year ago, it fell short of market expectations and was down 12 percent compared with the previous quarter. Revenue rose 17.35 percent to 79.
1 trillion won ($57.2 billion), its highest quarterly record, Samsung said. The firm is the flagship subsidiary of South Korean giant Samsung Group, by far the biggest of the family-controlled conglomerates that dominate business in Asia's fourth-largest economy.
Semiconductors are the lifeblood of the global economy, used in everything from kitchen appliances and mobile phones to cars and weapons. The company's semiconductor division reported 3.86 trillion won in operating profit, a 40 percent decrease from last quarter.
Samsung said its performance had decreased due to "a reduced reversal of inventory valuation loss compared to the previous quarter, one-off expenses such as the provision of incentives, and currency effects due to a weak dollar". Samsung has been lagging behin.