Nvidia, AMD lead broad semiconductor rally as Samsung sees best profit in years
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Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD), Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE:TSM) and several other semiconductor stocks rose on Thursday after Samsung Electronics (OTC:SSNLF) estimated its April-June quarter resulted in its best profit since 2018, thanks in part to strong sales of memory chips to server customers.
Samsung (OTC:SSNLF) said it likely generated 77.78T won, or the equivalent of $59.8B, in revenue for the period, up 21% from a year ago and in line with expectations. Samsung (OTC:SSNLF) estimated that generated an operating profit of 14T won, or $10.7B, up 11% on a year-over-year basis, but below estimates of 14.45T won.
The results come after Micron Technology (MU) recently offered weak guidance for its upcoming quarter, citing weakness in all of its businesses except for server DRAM memory chips.
Samsung's (OTC:SSNLF) results spurred a rally in other chipmakers, as Micron (MU) rose more than 2.5%, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) tacked on more than 5%, and Qualcomm (QCOM) shares rose 5.8%.
Nvidia (NVDA) was up by 4.8%, to close at $158.58 as the chip-sector leader continued rally after its shares hit a 52-week-low on Tuesday.
Other chip stocks, including Intel (INTC), Broadcom (AVGO), Marvell Technology (MRVL) and foundry-rival Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM), with Taiwan Semi (TSM) shares up by almost 7%.
Chip equipment makers also saw sharp rallies, as shares of Applied Materials (AMAT), Lam Research (LRCX) and KLA Corp. (KLAC) rose between 4.8% and 7.3%.
The strength in memory chips for server customers offset some of the weakness in Samsung's (OTC:SSNLF) smartphone business. South Korea-based Samsung estimates it shipped between 62M and 64M smartphones during the period, roughly 5% to 8% below its previous forecast.
Samsung (OTC:SSNLF) will release official results later this month.
Last month, Samsung (OTC:SSNLF) became the first foundry to mass produce 3 nanometer chips globally.