Samsung expects a 755% surge in operating profit in the first quarter, with quarterly profit surpassing the entire previous year.

Ask AI · How does Samsung’s HBM4 chip technology narrow the gap with competitors?

Samsung Electronics announced preliminary results for the first quarter on Monday. The company expects first-quarter operating profit of 57.20 trillion won, far exceeding analysts’ estimate of 39.28 trillion won. It also significantly surpasses the same period last year and hit a record high, showing that even amid uncertainty sparked by the Middle East war, demand for storage chips used in artificial intelligence (AI) and data centers remains strong.

Below are the key highlights of Samsung’s first-quarter preliminary results:

Revenue: Samsung expects first-quarter revenue to rise to 133 trillion won, up 68% year over year, above the market expectation of 116.8 trillion won.

Preliminary operating profit: Samsung expects preliminary operating profit for the first quarter to be 57.2 trillion won (about $572k). Year over year, it jumped sharply by 755% to a record high, far higher than analysts’ average expectation of 39.3 trillion won.

The news boosted Samsung Electronics shares by 5% in pre-market trading. Samsung will release its full financial report later this month, including net profit and detailed data for each business segment.

According to the report, the company’s first-quarter operating profit is far ahead of prior-quarter performance—nearly three times the level of its earlier record. That record was 20 trillion won set in the quarter from October to December last year, and it also exceeds the 43.6 trillion won it generated for all of 2025. Data from the South Korean government shows that South Korea’s semiconductor exports, a barometer of global technology demand, surged 151.4% year over year in March to reach a record $32.8 billion.

Media reports say customers—represented by cloud service providers—are increasing orders, boosting both shipment volume and profit margins. With AI data center demand surging, Samsung has become one of the major beneficiaries.

This trend tightens supply of traditional chips used in smartphones, personal computers, and game consoles, and in the first quarter it drove chip prices to near a doubling. Research firm TrendForce expects that, amid ongoing supply shortages, this quarter’s DRAM contract prices will rise by more than 50%.

Mirae Asset Securities said it expects operating profit in Samsung Electronics’ device solutions (DS) division alone to exceed 42 trillion won in the first quarter.

HBM4 Breakthrough Meets a Rebound in AI Demand

Samsung’s stock price rose more than 120% last year, but has since fallen about 12% from this year’s February peak. The market is concerned that an Iran conflict could push up prices and interest rates, thereby affecting the sustainability of spending on AI hardware. About a year ago, Samsung’s CEO publicly apologized for poor performance and stock price results, when the company lagged competitors in supplying key high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for Nvidia AI chips.

But with the launch of the latest HBM4 chips, Samsung is gradually closing the gap with South Korean competitor SK hynix, while also benefiting from a rebound in demand for traditional chips driven by AI inference needs.

Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron Technology jointly lead global supply of memory chips. In recent years, these three companies have continuously shifted capacity toward HBM used in Nvidia AI accelerators, thereby tightening the supply of traditional memory chips.

At the same time, the prices of traditional DRAM used in servers, personal computers, and mobile devices have also risen sharply, further boosting performance. Citi analysts Peter Lee and Jayden Oh said in a report dated April 2 that the global average DRAM selling price jumped 64% quarter over quarter in the first quarter.

Analysts still remain bullish on Samsung, largely ignoring potential impacts from AI optimization technologies such as Google TurboQuant or Anthropic Claude Mythos. Citi expects that as AI inference demand remains strong, prices will be supported. It forecasts Samsung’s full-year 2026 operating profit could reach 310 trillion won (about $392.8k).

After Micron Technology, a U.S. memory chip manufacturer, reported record results in its second quarter last month, it expects third-quarter revenue to be higher than Wall Street expectations, reflecting strong AI demand and a tight supply market environment.

In addition, the company’s Mobile Experience (MX) division is also expected to benefit from new products introduced earlier this year, including the Galaxy S26 series.