The big news that made the tech world buzz last month was that Samsung’s labor unions threatened to go on a 20-day strike if their bonuses were not increased. Samsung Electronics’ revenue has increased due to the demand for RAM that has increased manifold due to artificial intelligence (AI) data centers. Samsung pointed to the pressure of workers and the multi-million bonus received by Samsung Semiconductor employees.
Despite paying high bonuses, Samsung is now forecasting the company’s operating profit to increase 19 times this quarter compared to the same quarter last year driven by the demand for memory that seems to be still endless.
Operating profit is expected to reach 89.4 trillion won (~RM 239 billion) compared to just 4.7 trillion won (~RM 13 billion) last year. This profit is higher than the combined profit of the previous three years. Revenues will continue to increase in the near future as HBM memory production will be increased to meet the needs of AI data centers.
Although going through the era of “Kimchi collapse”, this increase in profit is only seen in the semiconductor business. Samsung's Mobile and home goods businesses are expected to suffer losses due to rising costs and the withdrawal from the Chinese market a few months ago.
