A photo illustration showing the Samsung Group Company logo displayed on a smartphone screen.
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Samsung Electronics’ operating profit and revenue rose Analyst estimates are estimated on Wednesday as sales of flagship smartphones and memory chips rose.
The Korean company recorded record quarterly revenue, up 10% from a year ago, but operating profit for the first quarter rose 1.5%.
Samsung’s first quarter results are weighted towards more consistent and accurate predictions from analysts.
- Revenue: 79.1 trillion Koreans win ($55.4 billion) vs. 78.1 trillion korean win
- Operating profit: 6.7 trillion Korean vs. 6.4 trillion won Won Won
First quarter revenues slightly surpassed Samsung’s 79 trillion Korean victory forecast, but operating profits were higher than the company’s expectations for a 6.6 trillion Korean victory.
Samsung is a major manufacturer of memory chips used in devices such as laptops and servers, and is also the second largest smartphone manufacturer in the world.
The company flagged macroeconomic uncertainty due to trade tensions and slowing global growth. Samsung expects performance to improve later in the year “assuming uncertainty is declining.”
“As major countries’ policy and geopolitical tensions have rapidly changed, it is difficult to accurately predict the business impact of tariffs and establish countermeasures,” a Samsung executive said in a revenue call on Wednesday.
The executive said Samsung’s flagship products, including semiconductors, smartphones and tablets, are exempt from US President Donald Trump’s “mutual” tariffs, but Washington is conducting product-specific tariff investigations in these categories.
“There is a lot of uncertainty ahead of us… We communicate with the relevant countries to minimize the negative impact,” the executive added.
Samsung Electronics’ South Korea-listed stock fell by about 0.5%.
Memory Business
Samsung Electronics’ chip business recorded operating profit of 1.1 trillion in the first quarter, which fell from the previous year’s quarter and the same period last year, but revenues increased year-on-year.
“For the memory business, revenue was driven by increasing sales of server DRAM and addressing additional NAND demand from the bottom of the market price,” the company said.
DRAM and NAND are types of semiconductor memory found in PCs, workstations and servers. Demand for such memory chips is surged towards the back of the artificial intelligence boom.
However, Samsung said revenues across the chip business were affected by a drop in average selling prices, while sales were affected by the US export controls of AI chips.
Samsung, a long-time memory chip leader, has recently fallen behind its local competitors. SK Hynix is in a better position to benefit from AI development.
a Report From Counterpoint Research earlier this month, SK Hynix said that Samsung was the first to overtake Samsung, gaining a global market share of 36% compared to Samsung’s 34%.
High bandwidth memory
The counterpoint report added that SK Hynix’s ascending in the DRAM market is due to its advantage in high bandwidth memory or HBM.
Last week Sk Hynix We have broken through quarterly revenue and operating profit estimates for strong demand for high-bandwidth memory delivery.
Samsung is actively working to keep up with HBM’s SK Hynix by improving its products and increasing research and development spending, Hwang told CNBC. “It’s going slowly, but we can expect progress,” he added.
Samsung said R&D spending rose 16% in the first quarter from a year ago.
The company said it also experienced a postponement of HBM demand from customers who are expecting to deploy the latest HBM products in revenue.
For the current quarter, Samsung expects ongoing strong demand from AI servers and will seek to strengthen its position in high value products, including HBM.
Speaking about the revenue call, Jaejoong Kim, vice-chairman of Samsung’s memory business, also pointed to preemptive purchasing activities in the second quarter ahead of Trump’s mutual tariffs.
Smartphone
Samsung’s mobile experience and networking company was responsible for the development and sales of smartphones, tablets, wearables and other devices, reporting increased sales and profits from the previous year and quarter.
Sales increased 10% year-on-year and 43% quarterly.
The company has recognized the growth in the launch of the latest Galaxy S25 smartphone series, including enhanced AI capabilities from previous models. Samsung added that it has achieved cost savings in the segment.
In the current quarter, the company said it plans to maintain sales through the launch of its new Galaxy S25 Edge smartphone and will continue to expand the AI-powered features offered in its smartphone lineup.
Correction: This story was revised to reflect a quarterly and year-over-year decline in operating profit for the chip segment.
