Samsung Electronics reported first-quarter operating profit of 9.84 trillion won ($7.1 billion) on Friday, an 89% year-over-year increase that exceeded analyst forecasts of 8.92 trillion won. Net profit jumped to 7.84 trillion won, up 124% from a year earlier. Revenue rose 11.4% to 79.1 trillion won, also ahead of consensus.
Shares of the world's largest memory chipmaker climbed 5.4% to 84,300 won in Seoul trading, lifting the Kospi index to a fresh 18-month high. Samsung shares are now up 22.8% year-to-date, recovering from a difficult 2024 in which the company ceded technology leadership in HBM memory to crosstown rival SK Hynix.
HBM Comeback Under Way
The Device Solutions division, which houses Samsung's memory and foundry businesses, posted operating profit of 6.42 trillion won, up from 1.91 trillion won a year earlier. Samsung disclosed that high-bandwidth memory shipments to Nvidia reached $4.2 billion in the quarter — a record figure that confirms the company has finally cleared Nvidia's qualification for HBM3E products that had eluded it for two years.
The foundry contract-manufacturing business narrowed its operating loss to 720 billion won from 2.4 trillion won a year earlier, helped by the ramp of 2-nanometer production at Pyeongtaek and a major design win with Tesla for in-house Dojo training silicon. Samsung confirmed it has secured at least three additional major customers for 2nm including Qualcomm, Google, and Microsoft.
Capex Increased to Record $52 Billion
Samsung announced it would lift full-year capital expenditure to a record 76 trillion won ($55 billion), up from a prior 70 trillion won plan, with the bulk allocated to NAND, DRAM, and HBM4 capacity to meet committed Nvidia and AMD orders extending into 2027. The company also confirmed an aggressive expansion of its Texas foundry footprint with a third fab to begin construction in 2027.
CFO Park Soon-cheol guided for Q2 operating profit between 11 trillion and 13 trillion won, well above the 8.7 trillion won consensus, citing further HBM mix improvement and an anticipated DRAM price hike of 12-15%. Citi analyst Peter Lee raised his price target to 105,000 won from 92,000, while Goldman Sachs reinstated coverage with a Buy rating and 110,000 won target.