Samsung Boosted by Rising Chip Prices

These profits were driven, in part, by semiconductor prices bouncing back after they dropped significantly last year and the demand for artificial intelligence products.

SSNLF is the biggest memory chip maker in the world, and they’ve estimated their operating profit for Q1 at 6.6tn won ($4.89bn /$ 7.45bn AUD), which is better than the 5.7tn won total that analysts had anticipated. It also represents a 931% increase from the 640bn won reported in Q1 last year.

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These numbers were mentioned in the firm’s short preliminary earnings statement. It would make this SSNLF’s largest operating profit since the Q3 of 2022 if confirmed when the final figures are released. On the downside, their revenue looks like it is failing to meet expectations despite increasing by 11% compared to Q1 in 2024. The reported revenue of 71tn won falls short of the 72.3tn won that had been estimated.

LinkedIn – Kyung Kye-hyun

The chip division of Samsung is normally their biggest earner, and Q1 will likely be their first quarterly profit in more than a year. Chip business CEO Kyung Kye-hyun said that:

We have set up a dedicated team and are ramping up productivity and quality and due to their efforts, HBM leadership is coming to us”, suggesting that they’re close to becoming the leaders in high-bandwidth memory chips.

A positive public response to the new Galaxy S24 phones with onboard AI may also have helped boost their earnings. However, we’ll need to wait until 30 April for the SSNLF details earnings report.