Samsung Profit Rises 73% as Memory-Chip Demand Surges

SEOUL— Samsung Electronics Co. offset relative weakness in smartphone shipments by capitalizing on another quarter of roaring demand for its memory chips.

Samsung, the world’s largest smartphone and memory-chip maker, is considered an industry bellwether because it is both a major electronics maker and components supplier to the world’s biggest tech firms, including Apple Inc. and Sony Group Corp.

The South Korea-based company posted second-quarter net profit of 9.63 trillion won, or the equivalent of $8.37 billion. That represented a 73% increase from 5.56 trillion won a year earlier.

Revenue increased 20% to 63.67 trillion won. The performance topped analysts’ estimates and underscored the global appetite for digital goods and services that this week also helped lift earnings at Microsoft Corp. , Apple and mobile-phone chip company Qualcomm Inc.

Strength at Samsung’s memory business propelled its second-quarter results. Pandemic shifts have kept demand high for personal computers, data servers and mobile devices, which all require memory chips. As a result, memory-chip makers recorded growth in shipments and enjoyed greater pricing power.