Samsung Electronics forecast a second-quarter operating profit of 89.4 trillion won ($58.7 billion), a more than 1,800 percent increase from the same period a year earlier, marking the third consecutive quarter of record-breaking earnings in the company's history. Revenue was estimated at 171 trillion won, roughly double the prior-year figure.
Investors were unimpressed. Samsung's stock fell 7 percent on Monday, dragging the KOSPI index down nearly 5 percent. Rival chipmaker SK Hynix also ended the session 6 percent lower, signaling broader market fatigue with the semiconductor sector's lofty valuations despite the artificial intelligence-driven boom.
The results arrive amid rising domestic labor costs; the Samsung union secured annual bonuses worth hundreds of thousands of euros per semiconductor division employee in an agreement reached in late May. Meanwhile, South Korea's youth unemployment rate has been climbing, underscoring a widening gap between the country's technology giants and its broader labor market.