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

Samsung has emerged as one of the major beneficiaries of the AI data centre 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. The world's largest memory chipmaker estimated an operating profit of 57.2 trillion won (US$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 mobile business was supported by the use of low-cost component inventories, he said, but its margins will likely come under increasing pressure in the second quarter due to rising costs of memory chips and other components and materials amid the war in the Middle East.