[Breaking] Samsung Electronics estimates $37.9 bil. operating profit in Q...

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Samsung Electronics estimates $37.9 bil. operating profit in Q1 earnings guidance

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By

Nam Hyun-woo

Published

Apr 7, 2026 7:47 am

KST

Korea's national flag and Samsung flag wave at Samsung Electronics' office in Seocho District, Seoul in this undated file photo. Korea Times file

Samsung Electronics on Tuesday provided its earnings guidance for the first quarter of this year, predicting 57.2 trillion won ($37.9 billion) in operating profit and 133 trillion won in sales, marking a record high.

The operating profit soared 755 percent from a year earlier, while the sales also jumped 68 percent during the same period.

The numbers far outpaced brokerages’ earnings consensus of 117 trillion won in sales and 38.1 trillion won in operating profit.

The strong performance is believed to have been driven by its semiconductor business. Mirae Asset Securities said Samsung Electronics’ Device Solutions (DS) division alone is estimated to have posted more than 42 trillion won in operating profit in the first quarter.

The surge was fueled by explosive demand for memory chips amid the expansion of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. Samsung Electronics recently began mass production shipments of its sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory 4 (HBM4). Prices of legacy DRAM used in servers, PCs and mobile devices also rose sharply, providing an additional boost.

Against this backdrop, Big Tech companies in recent months have signed pricey long-term memory supply agreements with Samsung Electronics as they prioritize securing supply over price negotiations.

The company’s Mobile Experience (MX) division is also estimated to have benefited from the launch of new products, including the Galaxy S26 series, earlier this year.