{"slug": "samsung-posted-1800-profit-growth-and-its-stock-fell-anyway", "title": "Samsung posted 1,800% profit growth and its stock fell anyway", "summary": "Samsung Electronics reported Q2 2026 operating profit of 89.4 trillion won ($59 billion), up 1,810% year-over-year, yet its shares fell nearly 7% as a Chinese lithography breakthrough, a hawkish Federal Reserve, and deepening doubt about AI investment returns triggered a sell-off that erased hundreds of billions in market value from AI chip stocks on July 27-28, 2026. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF fell more than 4%, and South Korea's KOSPI triggered its circuit breaker after plunging more than 8%, with Samsung and SK Hynix leading declines.", "body_md": "*AI chip stocks shed hundreds of billions in market value on July 27-28, 2026, as a Chinese lithography breakthrough, a hawkish Federal Reserve, and deepening doubt about AI investment returns hit semiconductor shares from Seoul to New York.*\n\nHere's the number that tells you everything about where AI chip valuations stand right now: Samsung Electronics reported Q2 2026 operating profit of 89.4 trillion won, roughly $59 billion, up 1,810% year-over-year. Its shares fell nearly 7% anyway. That's not a market glitch. It's a verdict.\n\nThe sell-off that rattled semiconductor stocks this week had three distinct engines, and understanding them separately matters, because they're not all equally alarming. The most dramatic catalyst landed on July 27 when The Information reported that a state-backed Shanghai company, Shanghai Yuliangsheng Technology, had begun mass-producing China's first domestically built immersion deep ultraviolet lithography machines. Five units are expected to ship this year to SMIC, Hua Hong, and ChangXin Memory Technologies, with roughly 20 more planned for 2027.\n\nImmersion DUV tools are the most advanced chipmaking equipment China's fabs can actually obtain. ASML's extreme ultraviolet machines, which print the densest modern circuits, have been off-limits to Chinese buyers since 2023. So China building its own DUV is a real development, not vaporware. But the gap with ASML is still significant: Yuliangsheng's machine targets 28nm-class production and could potentially reach 7nm at reduced yields using multi-patterning techniques, while ASML shipped 131 immersion DUV systems last year against China's five. ASML's total China revenue share has already dropped from 33% of net sales in 2025 to around 20% this year. The western equipment moat is eroding, just not collapsing overnight.\n\nFrankly, the China lithography story, as real as it is, looks like the match that lit a fire built from other materials. Micron Technology fell roughly 13% in the session, erasing approximately $138 billion in market value, according to reporting from Yahoo Finance. AMD dropped more than 8% and Intel shed around 3.5%. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF, which had gained 71% in the second quarter alone, fell more than 4% on the day, extending a pullback that had already trimmed it by roughly 9% from its recent peak.\n\nIn Seoul, the losses were worse. The KOSPI triggered its circuit breaker on July 28 after plunging more than 8%, with Samsung and SK Hynix, which together represent around 40-50% of the index's total market cap, leading the declines. Samsung's record earnings, which The Korea Times noted had been widely anticipated and largely priced in after the stock rallied ahead of results, couldn't absorb the weight of what investors were suddenly questioning: whether any level of current profit justifies the valuations built on AI infrastructure demand that hasn't fully materialized yet.\n\nThat's the harder problem. JPMorgan estimates AI-related capital expenditure will approach $870 billion globally in 2026, with hyperscaler debt financing surging to $190 billion. Citi has projected some large tech companies could face negative free cash flow in 2027 and 2028 if AI monetization lags buildout. Jim Cramer noted on July 27 that the reversal in chip stocks was\n\n**Also read:** [TravelAI bought Sonder's name out of bankruptcy and turned a dead hotel brand into an AI travel agent](https://startupfortune.com/travelai-bought-sonders-name-out-of-bankruptcy-and-turned-a-dead-hotel-brand-into-an-ai-travel-agent/) • [Cursor ships Moonshot AI's record 2.8-trillion-parameter Kimi K3 on launch day](https://startupfortune.com/cursor-ships-moonshot-ais-record-28-trillion-parameter-kimi-k3-on-launch-day/) • [GPT-5.6 and Grok 4.5 independently toppled a 30-year-old math conjecture and neither result is peer-reviewed yet](https://startupfortune.com/gpt-56-and-grok-45-independently-toppled-a-30-year-old-math-conjecture-and-neither-result-is-peer-reviewed-yet/)", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/samsung-posted-1800-profit-growth-and-its-stock-fell-anyway", "canonical_source": "https://startupfortune.com/samsung-posted-1800-profit-growth-and-its-stock-fell-anyway/", "published_at": "2026-07-28 03:06:38+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-28 03:09:18.509730+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-chips", "ai-infrastructure", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["Samsung Electronics", "Shanghai Yuliangsheng Technology", "ASML", "SMIC", "Hua Hong", "ChangXin Memory Technologies", "Micron Technology", "SK Hynix"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/samsung-posted-1800-profit-growth-and-its-stock-fell-anyway", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/samsung-posted-1800-profit-growth-and-its-stock-fell-anyway.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/samsung-posted-1800-profit-growth-and-its-stock-fell-anyway.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/samsung-posted-1800-profit-growth-and-its-stock-fell-anyway.jsonld"}}