Samsung Electronics shares rose as much as 4.8% on Tuesday after the South Korean technology giant predicted record quarterly profit on strong demand for artificial intelligence chips. The stock price subsequently pared back its gains, rising 0.52%.
In its preliminary earnings forecast, Samsung expects operating profit for the January-March period to reach 57.2 trillion won ($37.8 billion), an increase of more than eight times from just 6.69 trillion won in the same period last year.
If the profit materializes, it would be a quarterly record, nearly triple the previous high, and surpass the 42.3 trillion won forecast by the LSEG SmartEstimate, which emphasizes more consistent and accurate analyst forecasts.
Meanwhile, the company’s estimated consolidated sales are expected to increase by nearly 70% year-on-year to reach 133 trillion Korean won.
Samsung’s bright outlook was likely driven by the company’s memory chip business, particularly demand for high-bandwidth memory chips used in AI computing.
The device solutions division, which includes memory chips, accounted for 39% of Samsung’s sales and 57% of its operating profit in 2025.
Demand for high-bandwidth memory chips has exploded over the past year, causing shortages across the memory market and sharply increasing prices and volumes for memory manufacturers such as Samsung.
The results also reflect Samsung’s strengthening position in high-bandwidth memory chips after ceding an early lead to South Korean rival SK Hynix.
The company is expected to report its full earnings later this month.
