Samsung Electronics says operating profits up 12.18 percent in Q2

South Korean chip powerhouse Samsung Electronics said Thursday that second-quarter operating profits were up 12.18 percent, with record profits in its system semiconductor division despite global supply chain woes.

The company's "system semiconductor businesses... achieved a record high quarterly profit," Samsung said in a statement, adding it had both expanded its product line-up and increased the supply of chips to global customers.

"Earnings in the Memory Business improved both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter as the Company focused on meeting solid demand for servers," Samsung said.

In June, the company became the first chipmaker in the world to mass-produce 3-nanometre microchips as it sought to match and eventually outpace Taiwan's TSMC in the race to manufacture the world's most advanced chips. 

The new chips will be smaller, more powerful and efficient, and will be used in high-performance computing applications before being put into gadgets such as mobile phones.

The vast majority of the world's most advanced microchips are made by just two companies -- Samsung and TSMC -- both of which are running at full capacity to alleviate a global shortage.

Samsung is the market leader in memory chips, but it has been scrambling to catch up with TSMC in its advanced foundry division, which makes high-tech microchips for other companies.