Samsung Record Profit, DeepSeek's Chip Push, SpaceX $190 Target

Three distinct stories are moving the AI investment picture today: Samsung just posted its most profitable quarter ever, DeepSeek is quietly building its own chip, and SpaceX collected its first formal analyst price target alongside mandatory index buying.

Key points

• Samsung guided Q2 operating profit to 89.4 trillion won (~$58.8 billion), up 1,181% year-on-year, beating analyst consensus by 6.2%.
• Excluding a roughly 20 trillion won bonus provision tied to semiconductor performance, underlying profit approached 100 trillion won.
• DeepSeek is developing an in-house AI chip targeting inference workloads, a move explicitly aimed at reducing dependence on Nvidia hardware.
• Wedbush analyst Dan Ives initiated SpaceX coverage with a $190 price target, and the stock’s addition to the Nasdaq-100 is forcing passive funds to buy.
• Barclays reiterated TSMC as well-positioned for advanced logic wafer demand growth, per a June 29 note flagged by Philippe Laffont’s holdings analysis.

Samsung’s AI chip windfall: how big is this number?

To put the Samsung figure in context: the company’s full-year 2025 operating profit was 43.6 trillion won. The single Q2 2026 estimate is more than double that. Revenue came in at an estimated 171 trillion won, up 129.3% from the same period last year. This will be the third consecutive quarter of record revenue and operating profit for Samsung, stretching back to Q4 2025.

The driver is straightforward: AI infrastructure buildout has kept memory chip prices elevated and supply tight. Samsung is the world’s largest memory chip producer, and it was also first to begin mass production of sixth-generation HBM4 chips, which carry higher prices and margins than conventional DRAM or NAND. Analysts cited by Yonhap expect the supply shortage to persist through at least 2027, which sustains pricing power for Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron alike.

One nuance worth watching: Samsung’s consumer electronics and mobile division is expected to have posted comparatively weak results in the same period. The AI semiconductor segment is carrying nearly the entire earnings story. Samsung’s final detailed breakdown arrives later this month.

What does DeepSeek building its own chip mean for Nvidia?

Multiple reports published today confirm that DeepSeek is working on an in-house AI chip focused on inference. The goal is explicitly to reduce reliance on Nvidia hardware, which has been subject to US export restrictions limiting what chips can reach Chinese buyers.

This follows a well-worn path. Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta have all developed custom silicon partly to reduce Nvidia dependence, and none of them have eliminated Nvidia from their data centers. For DeepSeek, the calculus is more acute given export controls, making self-sufficiency a strategic necessity rather than just a cost optimization exercise.

The direct impact on Nvidia’s near-term revenue is limited: DeepSeek was already constrained in what Nvidia hardware it could legally obtain. The more significant signal is that China’s AI firms are accelerating efforts to build a domestic chip ecosystem. Whether DeepSeek’s inference chip reaches production scale, and on what timeline, is not yet reported. Investors tracking Nvidia’s China exposure should treat this as a long-run structural development rather than a near-term revenue event.

SpaceX: index inclusion mechanics and the Ives price target

SpaceX joined the Nasdaq-100, which requires all funds tracking that index to purchase the stock. The catch, as reported today, is that the float is small, capping SpaceX’s initial index weight at roughly 1%. That limits the scale of forced buying relative to a typical large-cap addition.

Separately, Wedbush’s Dan Ives initiated coverage with a $190 price target. Ives has been one of the more prominent tech bulls on Wall Street, but investors should note this is a single analyst’s initiation and not a consensus figure. SpaceX remains a private-market instrument with limited liquidity and significant float constraints. The AI connection here is indirect: SpaceX is increasingly framed as AI-adjacent infrastructure through satellite computing and future autonomous systems, though the primary business remains launch and Starlink.

TSMC and the broader semis picture

Barclays reiterated TSMC as well-positioned for advanced logic wafer growth in a June 29 note, and the stock continues to appear in high-profile institutional portfolios, including funds managed by Philippe Laffont. TSMC sits at the center of the AI chip supply chain as the primary manufacturer for Nvidia, AMD, Apple, and most custom silicon programs. With Samsung posting record AI chip profits and DeepSeek signaling long-term chip ambitions, the demand picture for advanced semiconductor manufacturing remains intact heading into the second half of 2026.

Nothing in today’s coverage changes the fundamental AI capex narrative. Samsung’s blowout quarter is the clearest confirmation yet that the infrastructure spending cycle is still running hot.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.