Samsung’s First-Quarter Profit Surges More Than Fourfold To $4.8B On AI Boom

By
Julian Nabil
Forbes Middle East Staff
Apr 30, 2024, 8:10 AM

Samsung’s flagship semiconductor business returned to profitability amid the AI boom. Image by Wongsakorn Napaeng / Shutterstock.
Samsung Electronics Co. posted a more than fourfold surge in its net profit to $4.8 billion (₩6.6 trillion) in the first quarter of 2024, from $1.02 billion for the year-ago period as its flagship semiconductor business returned to profitability amid the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, the company said on Tuesday.

First-quarter performance
The net profit for the quarter exceeded the $3.9 billion consensus estimate of analysts polled by FactSet, signaling that the global technology industry is recovering from a prolonged slump.
Revenue also rose 12.8% year-on-year to $52.2 billion for the March quarter, the company’s financial statement showed Tuesday, “on the back of strong sales of flagship Galaxy S24 smartphones and higher prices for memory semiconductors.”
Operating profit shot up 932.8% to $4.8 billion, largely in line with the company’s preliminary estimates, as “the Memory Business returned to profit by addressing demand for high value-added products,” Samsung said.
Samsung’s smartphone and network business recorded an operating profit of $2.5 billion on sales of $24.3 billion during the quarter, thanks to robust sales of the Galaxy S24 series.
Memory chip business
The chip division, historically Samsung’s cash cow business, returned to a profit of $1.4 billion in the March quarter, against a loss of $3.3 billion for the same period a year earlier.

This marks the first profit since the third quarter of 2022.

Samsung said it started mass-producing HBM3E 8H and V9 NAND in April to meet AI demand. In the second quarter, the company plans to mass-produce HBM3E 12H products and a 128GB product based on 1b nanometer 32GB DDR5.

The firm also said development of 3-nanometer and 2-nanometer processes is “progressing smoothly.” Samsung launched mass production of 3-nanometer chips in 2022, with plans to begin mass producing 2-nanometer chips next year.

Shares performance
The company’s shares rose by 1.7% in Seoul trading as of 9:00 am GST.

What to watch for
Samsung anticipates that demand for its chips will remain robust throughout the current quarter as well as the second half of the year, fueled by the growing need for generative AI technology.

Surprising fact
Samsung was the world’s top smartphone seller in the first quarter, maintaining the title after losing out to rival Apple at the end of last year, according to preliminary data from research firm International Data Corp.

Net worth
Jay Y. Lee, the executive chairman of Samsung Electronics, had a real-time net worth of $10.8 billion as of April 30, 2024.

This story was updated as of 9:45 am GST.

RevenueSamsungInnovationConsumer Technology
By
Julian Nabil
Forbes Middle East Staff
I’m an Online Editor at Forbes Middle East with varied experience in business journalism across several local and international news websites and publishing houses. I’m proficient in tracking and reporting changes in the business world and the economic makeup of societies in the Middle East and globally