Samsung flags eightfold jump in quarterly profit as AI chip demand stokes prices

Samsung Electronics on Tuesday (April 7) projected its first-quarter earnings would exceed its entire profit for last year, beating expectations as booming demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure caused supply bottlenecks and drove chip prices higher.

The world's largest memory chipmaker estimated an operating profit of 57.2 trillion won ($37.92 billion) for the January to March period, compared with an LSEG SmartEstimate of 40.6 trillion won and a more than eightfold jump from 6.69 trillion won a year earlier.

The record-high results nearly triple Samsung's previous record quarterly operating profit of 20 trillion won, reached in the fourth quarter last year.

Samsung has emerged as one of the major beneficiaries of the AI data center boom that has constrained supply for traditional chips used in smartphones, PCs and game consoles and led to a near-doubling in chip prices in the first quarter alone.

-Minwoo Park/Reuters