Samsung Profit Slides 35% on Chip Weakness

Samsung Electronics Co. posted its sixth straight quarter of declining operating profit, reflecting stubbornly weak demand for consumer electronics globally.

Korea’s largest company reported a 35% fall in operating income to 2.8 trillion won ($2.1 billion), versus the 3.7 trillion won average of analysts’ estimates.

Revenue came to 67 trillion won, compared with projections for 70.31 trillion won.

The results underscore how demand for smartphones and the memory chips that power modern electronics remains sluggish given economic uncertainty.

Samsung in October predicted the long-depressed $160 billion memory market will bounce back gradually in 2024, driven by a boom in AI development. Prices should start climbing out of troughs around the latter part of 2023, executives said at the time.