![\"null](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/news-p.v1.20260128.b5a6715219eb40a68e744e82360f5256_P1.png\"\/ "\\"Micron's")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Micron Technology, the world’s third-largest memory chipmaker, reported earnings-surprise-level results for its second quarter, drawing market attention to the second-quarter operating profits of Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and SK hynix (000660.KS) set to be released next month. The view is gaining traction that surging demand from expanding artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure investment has pushed the memory industry beyond a “super cycle” into a “mega cycle” phase.<\/p>\n
Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest memory chipmaker, plans to release preliminary second-quarter earnings in early July, while SK hynix will announce final earnings in late July. The financial investment industry expects both companies are likely to once again set record results.<\/p>\n
Micron’s results, released Tuesday, showed that the memory industry has entered a structural boom phase beyond a simple cyclical recovery.<\/p>\n
Micron recorded revenue of $41.456 billion (about 64 trillion won) in the third quarter of fiscal 2026. This represents a 345.7% increase from a year earlier. Operating profit was $33.318 billion (51.56 trillion won), with the operating margin jumping to 80.4%. In addition, Micron offered fourth-quarter revenue guidance of around $50 billion and projected its gross profit margin would rise further to around 86%.<\/p>\n
![\"Source:](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/news-p.v1.20260625.a0904bae69aa44ae8ed75755782670c7_P1.jpg\"\/ "\\"Micron's")
Source: Seoul Economic Daily<\/p>\n
Samsung Electronics, SK hynix. Yonhap News<\/p>\n
Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won attend the official reception for the 2030 Busan World Expo in 2023. Yonhap News<\/p>\n
The industry is focusing on the operating margin among Micron’s reported results, which exceeded 80%. Micron’s operating margin was 67.6% in the second quarter. But in the third quarter, the operating margin rose 12.8 percentage points to 80.4%.<\/p>\n
Micron posted an earnings surprise as global big tech firms’ AI data center investment grew explosively. Demand for high-value products such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM), double data rate 5 (DDR5), and server solid-state drives (SSD) overwhelmed supply, and prices surged. As a result, memory makers’ pricing power in high-value chip supply negotiations has become much stronger than during past super cycles.<\/p>\n
Micron said that “memory has become a strategic asset in the AI era,” and that it is raising its technology, product, and supply investment to record levels to meet customers’ surging demand. It also projected that memory supply shortages and strong prices would continue beyond 2027.<\/p>\n
With Micron, the industry’s No. 3 player, presenting record results, expectations are also rising for the second-quarter earnings that No. 1 Samsung Electronics and No. 2 SK hynix will report next month. The financial investment industry forecasts that Samsung Electronics’ second-quarter operating profit could reach up to 100 trillion won and SK hynix’s up to 70 trillion won.<\/p>\n
![\"null](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/news-p.v1.20260622.27fc0dcd75e74ac1babc6c91302a0b8e_P1.png\"\/ "\\"Micron's")
<\/p>\n
According to FnGuide, Samsung Electronics’ second-quarter revenue and operating profit estimates on a three-month basis were 169.6547 trillion won and 85.8777 trillion won, respectively. But on a one-month basis, the updated revenue estimate rose to 173.8758 trillion won and the operating profit estimate to 87.4138 trillion won. The highest estimates reach 181.471 trillion won in revenue and 99.63 trillion won in operating profit.<\/p>\n
For SK hynix as well, the three-month revenue and operating profit estimates were 82.5251 trillion won and 63.0998 trillion won, respectively, which rose to 84.7288 trillion won and 64.7719 trillion won over the past month. The highest estimates are 90.453 trillion won in revenue and 71.446 trillion won in operating profit.<\/p>\n
Some point to the possibility that earnings estimates for Samsung Electronics and SK hynix could rise further after Micron’s earnings release. In the first quarter, Samsung Electronics recorded an operating margin of about 74% when limited to its memory division, while SK hynix recorded 71.5%. SK hynix’s second-quarter operating margin estimate is also around 76%.<\/p>\n
For this reason, applying Micron’s operating margin, which exceeded 80%, could push earnings forecasts even higher, the explanation goes. An official in the semiconductor industry said, “Micron’s results showed how strongly AI infrastructure investment is being reflected in memory makers’ income statements,” adding, “Samsung Electronics’ and SK hynix’s second-quarter earnings could significantly exceed market estimates.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Micron Technology, the world’s third-largest memory chipmaker, reported earnings-surprise-level results for its second quarter, drawing market attention to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[544,699,697,22688,28656,2880,127,276,275],"class_list":["post-65131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-samsung-electronics","tag-ai-data-center","tag-hbm","tag-memory-semiconductor","tag-memory-super-cycle","tag-micron-earnings","tag-operating-margin","tag-samsung","tag-samsung-electronics","tag-sk-hynix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}