Samsung Electronics expects tenfold jump in Q1 profit as chip demand rebounds

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. said Friday its operating profit for the first quarter is estimated to have shot up more than tenfold on rebounding demand for memory chips, beating market expectations.

The world’s biggest maker of memory chips expected a first-quarter operating profit of 6.6 trillion won (US$4.9 billion), up 931.3 percent from a year earlier, Samsung Electronics said in a regulatory filing.

The operating profit was 20.5 percent higher than the average estimate, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.

Sales increased 11.4 percent to 71 trillion won for the January-March period. It marked the first time the company’s quarterly revenue had topped the 70 trillion-won level since the fourth quarter of 2022. It did not provide its estimate for net income.

For 2023, Samsung Electronics posted 258.93 trillion won in sales, down 14.3 percent from a year earlier.

Its annual operating profit dived 84.9 percent on-year to 6.56 trillion won, and net profit tumbled 72.2 percent to 15.48 trillion won.

The company will come up with its final first-quarter earnings report later.

Samsung did not release detailed performances of its key business divisions, but market watchers expect that its semiconductor unit, which oversees its cash cow chip business, will swing to a profit for the first time in five quarters.