{"id":233486,"date":"2026-01-08T03:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T03:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/233486\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T03:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T03:16:07","slug":"samsung-forecasts-record-profit-and-signals-sustained-ai-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/233486\/","title":{"rendered":"Samsung forecasts record profit and signals sustained AI boom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/p>\n

Samsung Electronics has forecast record quarterly earnings, cementing a turnaround for the South Korean technology group as demand surges for chips during the global race to build out data centres powering artificial intelligence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s largest memory chipmaker on Thursday estimated that its fourth-quarter operating profit trebled to about Won20tn ($13.8bn) from a year earlier, surpassing analyst estimates of Won17tn. The company forecast a 23 per cent revenue increase to Won93tn.<\/p>\n

The strong guidance highlights the continued AI boom with Samsung<\/a> now seen as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the chip supply crunch<\/a> sparked by the industry\u2019s focus on high-bandwidth memory chips used in AI hardware.<\/p>\n

Samsung\u2019s share price rose 125 per cent last year to Won119,900, the stock\u2019s biggest annual percentage gain in 26 years. Korean chipmakers\u2019 pivotal role in the AI supply chain made the country\u2019s stock market the best performer among major economies last year, driving the Kospi benchmark index up 76 per cent to a record high<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are seeing the beginning of the unprecedented semiconductor supercycle,\u201d said Daniel Kim, head of Korea Research at Macquarie Capital. \u201cThe best is yet to come, with the Dram shortage making Samsung\u2019s HBM performance a secondary issue.\u201d Kim added that the memory chip shortage was unlikely to abate by 2027, making conventional Dram much more profitable than HBM. <\/p>\n

The robust performance marks a sharp reversal of Samsung<\/a>\u2019s fortunes after the chief executive Jun Young-hyun had to make an apology a year ago for the company\u2019s underperformance in HBM, which had fuelled concern over its competitive edge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In recent months, Samsung chair Lee Jae-yong has been holding a series of high-profile meetings as he seeks to keep his company in a strong position for the global AI build-out. In October, he met Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang and in November Asia\u2019s richest man Mukesh Ambani.<\/p>\n

Recommended<\/p>\n

\"Montage<\/a><\/p>\n

Analysts said that Samsung is now on track to be a key supplier for Nvidia, with its most advanced HBM4 chips likely to be used in the US company\u2019s Vera Rubin platform. Nvidia\u2019s Huang said on Monday that the company\u2019s next generation of chips is in full production.<\/p>\n

Jun said in a new year speech last week that customers praised its latest HBM4 chips, saying: \u201cSamsung is back.\u201d He added that its lossmaking chip contract manufacturing business is also \u201cprimed for a Great Leap Forward\u201d following recent supply deals with major customers such as Tesla.<\/p>\n

Samsung\u2019s upbeat guidance comes after its US rival Micron Technology forecast second-quarter adjusted profit at nearly double analyst estimates.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs conventional Dram prices continue to surge, Samsung \u2014 whose production capacity is largely concentrated in this segment \u2014 stands to gain relatively more from the current price upcycle,\u201d said market research company TrendForce analyst Avril Wu in a recent note. <\/p>\n

Peter Lee, an analyst at Citigroup, expects Samsung to report record operating profit of Won155tn this year, compared with Won43.5tn in 2025, forecasting strong AI-related demand to drive up average Dram and Nand chip prices 88 per cent and 74 per cent respectively. <\/p>\n

But the surging chip prices are squeezing the margins of Samsung\u2019s other businesses such as smartphones and home appliances. Samsung will announce its full results for the fourth quarter with divisional breakdowns later this month. <\/p>\n

Nomura expects Samsung\u2019s HBM sales to double this year but production of lower-end memory chips to increase 20 per cent this year, falling short of demand. \u201cIn our view, meaningful supply growth of commodity Dram and Nand may only happen in 2028-2029,\u201d when Samsung\u2019s new production facilities come online, said CW Chung and Eon Hwang at Nomura in a report last month.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,218,219,61,60,80],"class_list":["post-233486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}