Seoul, July 31 (IANS): Samsung Electronics said on Wednesday its second quarter (Q2) operating profit surged more than 15 times from a year earlier on the robust performance of its semiconductor business.

The world's largest mobile phone and memory chip maker's operating profit reached 10.44 trillion won ($7.54 billion) in the April-June period, compared with 668.5 billion won a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing.

It is the first time that Samsung Electronics posted an operating profit of more than 10 trillion won in seven quarters since the third quarter of 2022. Its sales jumped 23.4 per cent on-year to 74.06 trillion won and net profit soared 471 percent to 9.84 trillion won.

Sales and shipments of its latest Galaxy S24 series, released in January, outnumbered those of its predecessor, Galaxy S23, both in the second quarter and the first half.

"In the second half of 2024, overall demand for smartphones is expected to increase year-on-year, with increased demand for premium products, driven by growing demand for AI and the launch of new products with innovative features," the company said.

The earnings exceeded market expectations. The average estimate of operating profit by analysts stood at 10.29 trillion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.

Samsung said it invested 8.05 trillion won in research and development in the quarter ending in June. It also spent 12.1 trillion won in facility investment, including 9.9 trillion won in the semiconductor sector.

The company said its chip business earned 28.6 trillion won in sales for the three-month period through June, with an operating profit of 6.45 trillion won.

It marked the first quarterly operating profit for the company's flagship business in more than one year as it had remained in the red for five consecutive quarters since the first quarter of 2023.

The strong performance was driven by increasing demand for memory chips, including those for artificial intelligence servers and solid-state drives.

Samsung’s TV business also expanded in the April-June period thanks to global sporting events, such as the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, while its conventional home appliance segment was on a gradual recovery on increasing demand for air conditioners and new products.