AI NewsWaveSamsung SDS Posts 241.0 Billion Won in Q3 Operating Profit, Previews Vera Rubin GPU Service Next Year
Key points
- Samsung SDS Q3 revenue of 3.7725 trillion won
- Cloud and logistics growth drove results
- GPUaaS based on Vera Rubin planned for March next year
Samsung SDS said on the 29th that it recorded third-quarter preliminary revenue of 3.7725 trillion won and operating profit of 241.0 billion won. Revenue rose 11.2% and operating profit rose 3.7% from the same period last year. According to Techworld News, compared with the previous quarter, revenue rose 1.5% and operating profit rose 4.0%. The growth of the external cloud business and the air and ocean logistics businesses was cited as the reason for the improved results.
The outlets stressed slightly different points. EBN reported that the cloud business posted double-digit growth on rising demand for enterprise AI transformation (AX), and Bloter reported that the cloud business grew on AX demand and that logistics quarterly revenue topped 2 trillion won. Industry News said AX demand drove growth in cloud, while air and ocean freight volumes and rising freight rates drove growth in logistics. Techworld News wrote in its headline that cloud grew 18%, and Digital Today wrote in its headline that third-quarter cloud revenue approached 800 billion won. Datanet pointed to rising demand for GPUaaS and financial-sector AX in its headline.
Business plans were also announced. According to Chosun Biz, Samsung SDS will launch a GPU subscription service (GPUaaS) based on Nvidia's next-generation GPU Vera Rubin in March next year, the first in Asia, and will also release next year a platform that manages robot training and operations in one place. Chosun Biz reported in its headline that the company targets 1 trillion won in operating profit next year. Digital Daily reported that the company plans to offer an early service next year using its Dongtan data center. According to Tech M, Samsung SDS projected that its AX business revenue this year will grow to more than double last year's.
Explanations of the data center and security businesses followed. According to Bloter, Samsung SDS said it aims to grow its AI data center design, build and operate (DBO) business into a new revenue source worth more than 1 trillion won a year, and plans to expand the DBO business to a cumulative 500 megawatts (MW) by 2031. Digital Daily reported that CEO Lee Jun-hee said on the earnings call that a series of hacks targeting domestic public institutions and companies will increase demand for security consulting, and that the company will expand related new businesses. Digital Today reported that Lee said partnerships with three frontier AI companies are leading to results in AI security and cloud business. AI Times reported that in physical AI, the company has teamed up with global robot makers and begun field demonstrations at Samsung affiliates.
A fourth-quarter outlook was also given. According to Digital Daily, Executive Vice President Kim Tae-ho, head of management support, said on the third-quarter earnings call that growth in cloud-linked businesses will remain steep in the fourth quarter as well, and named the expansion of AX in finance and the public sector as the driver.
Recently, the results of Samsung SDS and LG CNS have drawn attention side by side. IT Chosun reported on the 29th that the two companies are competing in the enterprise AX market, having teamed up with OpenAI and Anthropic. After the results were released on the 30th, Tech M reported that, contrary to market concerns that AI is reducing system integration (SI) work, the two companies are creating new business opportunities.
Glossary GPUaaS (GPU as a service) means renting high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) as needed. DBO refers to an approach in which a company handles everything from designing and building to operating a data center.