Samsung Electronics on Thursday projected a stronger-than-expected profit for the fourth quarter, as soaring memory chip prices—driven by booming artificial intelligence demand—helped offset broader market pressures.
The world’s largest memory chipmaker said it expects operating profit to reach around 20 trillion won ($13.82 billion) for the October–December period. This comfortably exceeded market expectations of roughly 18 trillion won and marked more than a threefold increase from the 6.49 trillion won recorded in the same quarter a year earlier.
Revenue is also forecast to have climbed sharply, with fourth-quarter sales estimated at about 93 trillion won, up from 75.79 trillion won a year ago.
Samsung’s upbeat outlook was primarily fueled by a rapid rise in memory chip prices, as AI-focused companies absorbed a large share of available supply, creating a tightening market. Research from Counterpoint indicated that memory prices surged between 40% and 50% during the fourth quarter, with similar gains expected to continue into the first quarter of 2026.
The company had previously warned of a looming memory shortage and signaled a strategic shift toward higher-margin products, including advanced high-bandwidth memory chips used in AI servers.
Samsung is reportedly close to finalizing a major supply agreement with NVIDIA Corporation for HBM chips and has already secured a significant partnership with OpenAI, further strengthening its exposure to AI-driven growth.
While Samsung’s semiconductor division is expected to benefit substantially from strong AI demand, its mobile business could face headwinds. Rising component costs linked to the chip shortage may weigh on smartphone demand as device prices increase.
Samsung co-CEO TM Roh warned earlier this week that prices for smartphones and other consumer electronics are likely to rise in the coming months.
The company is scheduled to release its full fourth-quarter earnings report later in January.
Samsung shares were volatile in South Korean trading on Thursday and briefly touched record highs. The stock has reached multiple all-time highs over the past week, supported by optimistic management commentary and growing investor confidence in sustained memory price gains.
Rival chipmaker SK Hynix also surged more than 5% to a record high, helping lift the benchmark KOSPI index by over 1%.
