Headquarters of Samsung in Mountain View, California, on October 28, 2018.
Samsung Electronics reported a rebound in earnings on Thursday, with operating profit more than doubling from the previous quarter, bolstered by strong memory chip demand from artificial intelligence servers.
Here are Samsung's third-quarter results compared with LSEG SmartEstimate, which is weighted toward forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate:
Revenue : 86.1 trillion Korean won ($60.5 billion) vs. 85.93 trillion won
: 86.1 trillion Korean won ($60.5 billion) vs. 85.93 trillion won Operating profit: 12.2 trillion won vs. 11.25 trillion won
The South Korean technology giant's quarterly revenue rose 8.85% from a year earlier, while its first-quarter operating profit climbed 32.9% in the same period.
Samsung shares popped nearly 4% in early trading in Asia.
The earnings represent a bounce back from the June quarter, which had been weighed down by a massive slump in Samsung's chip business. Operating profit increased by 160% compared to June, while revenue increased by 15.5% over the same period.
Samsung Electronics, South Korea's largest company by market capitalization, is a leading provider of memory chips, semiconductor foundry services and smartphones.
The company's earnings were lifted by its chip business, which saw operating profit increase over tenfold from the June quarter on strong demand for AI servers.
Samsung predicted that AI chip demand would continue to grow, echoing sentiments from memory rival SK Hynix , which reported earnings on Wednesday.
"We expect data center companies to continuously expand their hardware investment because of the ongoing competition to secure AI infrastructure," a Samsung executive said during an earnings call.
"Therefore, our AI-related server demand keeps growing, and this demand significantly exceeds industry supply," he added.