Samsung posts 32% profit rise on-year in third quarter

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics said Thursday its operating profit for the third quarter jumped 32 percent on-year to 12.2 trillion won ($8.5 billion), driven by record sales in its memory chip business and AI-fuelled market demand.

AI-driven market conditions have provided a major boost to South Korea's Samsung and SK hynix, two of the world's leading memory chip makers, as their products have become indispensable for AI infrastructure.

"Operating profit increased to 12.2 trillion won. The Device Solutions (DS) Division reported a 19 percent increase in sales quarter-on-quarter, with the Memory Business setting an all-time high for quarterly sales," it said in its earnings statement.

Its smartphone division logged an 11 percent rise quarter-on-quarter in revenue "due to the successful launch of new foldable phones and solid flagship sales", it added.

"Looking ahead to Q4, the rapid growth of the AI industry is expected to open up new market opportunities for both the DS and DX Divisions," it said, referring to its chips and smartphone units.

The current AI boom has pushed up prices and shipments of conventional NAND and DRAM memory, alongside soaring demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips used in AI servers.