Samsung profit surges over eightfold to beat estimates as AI boom fuels

Samsung Electronics reported an over eightfold increase in first-quarter operating profits on Thursday, hitting a new record and beating analysts’ estimates on the explosive growth of its chip business.

Here are Samsung’s first-quarter results compared with LSEG SmartEstimate, which is weighted toward forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate:

• Revenue: 133.9 trillion Korean won ($89.96 billion) vs. 132.69 trillion won expected

• Operating profit: 57.2 trillion won vs. 55.28 trillion won expected

The South Korean technology giant’s quarterly profit climbed more than 750% from a year earlier to a fresh record. The company also posted record revenue, up about 70% year over year. 

The profits came in line with Samsung’s own estimates of 57.2 trillion won and exceeded its full-year 2025 profits of 43.6 trillion won.

The earnings extend momentum from the final quarter of last year, when Samsung surpassed its prior record of 17.6 trillion won set in the third quarter of 2018.

Samsung’s record earnings came on the strength of its chip business. Besides its smartphone business and semiconductor foundry services, the firm is a major producer of memory chips.

The firm’s chip business has emerged as a major beneficiary of the global AI data center boom, which has constrained supply and driven up prices of memory chips used in data centers and electronics such as smartphones, PCs and game consoles. 

Samsung said in an earnings report that it expects server memory demand to remain strong into the second half of the year as hyperscalers continue to accommodate AI adoption and demand for agentic AI accelerates.

The company’s shares jumped about 1% in South Korea after the earnings release, but pared those gains in afternoon trade, falling 0.8%. Its shares are up around 90% so far this year.

The division posted an operating profit of 53.7 trillion Korean won in the first quarter, compared with just about 1 trillion Korean won in the same period last year. Those profits accounted for more than 90% of the company’s total earnings for the quarter.

Meanwhile, overall chip sales reached 81.7 trillion Korean won, up 225% from last year.

The strong showing comes as Samsung continues to expand its high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, business, a key component in AI data center chips.

Chipmakers such as Nvidia — the world’s most valuable company — have driven demand for HBM, amid limited supplies.

As manufacturers prioritize production for higher-margin AI applications, supply constraints have pushed up prices for memory used in consumer electronics.

Samsung said Thursday that its memory business “surpassed its quarterly sales…