Samsung Electronics (005930) opened a new chapter in Korean corporate history in the first quarter of this year, surpassing 133 trillion won in revenue and 57 trillion won in operating profit. Leveraging its overwhelming memory semiconductor technology to lead the artificial intelligence (AI) era, Samsung Electronics catapulted itself into the "Global Big Tech Top 5" by operating profit.
Samsung Electronics announced on the 7th that its consolidated first-quarter revenue was preliminarily tallied at 133 trillion won and operating profit at 57.2 trillion won, surging 68.1% and 755% year-over-year, respectively. This is the company's best performance in its 57-year history and the highest quarterly operating profit ever recorded by a Korean company. Notably, in just three months, the company far exceeded its entire previous year's operating profit (43.5011 trillion won), achieving an "earnings surprise" that beat market forecasts (approximately 43.7636 trillion won) by more than 30%.
The record-breaking results were driven by the semiconductor (DS) division. As the global AI investment boom sent prices of DRAM, High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), and NAND flash soaring, the DS division's operating profit is understood to have exceeded 50 trillion won.
With these results, Samsung Electronics has risen to the ranks of a bona fide global big tech company — surpassing Alphabet (approximately 54 trillion won), Google's parent company, in quarterly operating profit, standing shoulder to shoulder with Microsoft (approximately 57 trillion won), and closely chasing Apple (approximately 76 trillion won) and Nvidia (approximately 66 trillion won).
The financial investment industry is forecasting that Samsung Electronics will set new records every quarter this year, with annual revenue reaching as high as 650 trillion won and operating profit surpassing 300 trillion won.
Meanwhile, the Device eXperience (DX) division, which handles smartphones and other products, is estimated to have seen its operating profit decline approximately 7% year-over-year to around 4 trillion won due to cost burdens from rising memory prices.
[Samsung Writes New History for Korean Companies]
Operating Profit 320 Trillion This Year, 488 Trillion Next Year
Aiming to Overtake Nvidia for World No. 1
Samsung Electronics' first-quarter results this year are assessed as having established a new milestone in Korean corporate history, going beyond a simple "earnings surprise." Just a week earlier, the average forecast from securities firms was 40.2 trillion won, but the actual operating profit came in at 57.2 trillion won, exceeding market expectations by 42.3%. Looking at the company-wide operating profit margin (43%) for the first quarter alone, it is an unprecedented achievement — doubling from the previous quarter — and a historic record in which a single quarter's operating profit exceeded the entire previous year's profit (43.6011 trillion won).
At the center of the strong results is the semiconductor (DS) division. The DS division's first-quarter operating profit surged more than threefold from the previous quarter (16.4 trillion won), sweeping up an estimated 53 trillion won of the total 57.2 trillion won.
Results varied across business units. DRAM and NAND flash appear to have driven the record performance with massive profits of approximately 44 trillion won and 10 trillion won, respectively. On the other hand, the non-memory foundry and System LSI divisions are observed to have posted losses of approximately 1.5 trillion won due to delays in yield stabilization despite expanded utilization of advanced process nodes.
These achievements are the result of a structural "super cycle" in memory semiconductors driven by the AI boom gaining full momentum. As the AI industry shifted from traditional search-focused applications to "agentic AI"-based inference markets, data center demand exploded. Global investment bank Citi diagnosed that "Samsung Electronics recorded an overwhelming earnings surprise on the back of solid AI inference memory demand" and that "strong price increases centered on server DRAM drove the results."
Indeed, according to market research firm DRAMeXchange, DRAM fixed transaction prices rose 39.8% in just one quarter, from $9.30 in December last year to $13.00 in March this year. NAND flash also surged an unprecedented 208.8% during the same period, from $5.74 to $17.73. Kim Dong-won, head of KB Securities' research division, analyzed that "the expansion of big tech AI infrastructure investment exceeding 1,000 trillion won annually is structurally driving Samsung Electronics' memory demand."
Q1 Operating Profit of 57.2 Trillion Won — "Global Top 4"
DRAM Posts 44 Trillion, NAND Posts Over 10 Trillion
DRAM Prices to Rise Over 30% in Q2 as Well
HBM4 Revenue to Be Fully Reflected Starting in H2
Big Tech Investing 1,000 Trillion in AI This Year Alone
"The Mega-Cycle Has Just Entered the Middle Stage"
Buoyed by steep profit growth, Samsung Electronics has joined the "Top 5" ranks alongside global big tech companies. Converting the operating profits of major global companies that recently reported quarterly results: Apple posted $50.9 billion (approximately 76.6 trillion won), Nvidia $44.3 billion (approximately 66.7 trillion won), and Microsoft $38.3 billion (approximately 57.6 trillion won). Samsung Electronics, at approximately $38 billion (based on a won-dollar exchange rate of 1,505 won), chased Microsoft to within striking distance and leapfrogged Alphabet (Google's parent company) at $35.9 billion (approximately 54 trillion won), settling firmly into the global top four in a remarkable feat.
The semiconductor industry and securities firms see the memory super-boom phase continuing smoothly through next year. The four major big tech companies, including Alphabet and Amazon, plan to pour approximately 1,000 trillion won into AI infrastructure construction this year alone. Moreover, a minimum 30% price increase for DRAM in the second quarter is already a foregone conclusion. Starting in the second half, volumes of HBM4 — the sixth-generation High Bandwidth Memory with higher unit prices — are expected to be fully reflected in earnings. Kim Sun-woo, a researcher at Meritz Securities, noted that "this memory cycle has only just approached the mid-cycle stage," forecasting that future results will improve even more explosively.
Market expectations are aimed at an era of 300 trillion won in annual operating profit. According to FnGuide, the highest forecast for Samsung Electronics' annual operating profit this year reaches 321.7360 trillion won. Securities firms expect Samsung Electronics' operating profit to continue its record-breaking march every quarter — approximately 61.8 trillion won in the second quarter, 71.9 trillion won in the third quarter, and 75.9 trillion won in the fourth quarter. Furthermore, some forecasts suggest that by 2027, operating profit could soar to as much as 488 trillion won, overtaking Nvidia (forecast at approximately 485 trillion won) and making Samsung the undisputed world's No. 1 company by operating profit.
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