Seoul, South Korea – April 30, 2024 – South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics today announced a massive jump in operating profit for the first quarter, attributing the gains to surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips.
The company’s revenue for the first three months of the year rose 13% to 71.9 trillion won ($52.14 billion), including a 96% surge in memory chip revenue to 17.49 trillion won. Sharp price increases for memory chips and the AI boom were key drivers of the growth.
Samsung’s first-quarter operating profit soared 960% to 6.6 trillion won, beating analyst expectations. This was the company’s highest operating profit since the third quarter of 2022 and marked a turnaround from a loss of 4.58 trillion won in the same period last year.
Strong demand for HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) chips, which are used in AI applications, played a key role in Samsung’s growth. The company expects demand for AI-related chips to more than triple in 2024 compared to last year.
Samsung is investing heavily in production of high-end HBM chips to meet the growing demand. The company began mass production of its latest HBM3E chips this month and expects high-end memory chips to be in tight supply by the end of the year.
In addition to memory chips, Samsung’s smartphone division posted an operating profit of 3.51 trillion won in the first quarter. However, smartphone sales fell to 60 million units compared to the previous year. Despite this decline, the division remained profitable thanks to AI features in the Galaxy S24 models.
Overall, Samsung expects to continue to deliver strong results in 2024 thanks to strong demand for AI chips and the growing smart device market.
Additional Information:
- Samsung plans to more than triple its HBM chip supply in 2024.
- The company began mass production of its latest HBM3E chips this month.
- Samsung expects high-end memory chips to be in tight supply by the end of the year.
- AI features in the S24 models helped Samsung’s smartphone division remain profitable.
Conclusion:
Samsung is capitalizing on the AI boom and investing in production of high-end chips to meet the growing demand. The company is expected to continue to deliver strong results in 2024 thanks to this trend.
Source: Samsung Investor Relations: https://www.samsung.com/global/ir/ – Look for earnings reports
