Samsung Electronics has reported preliminary operating profit of 57.2 trillion won for the first quarter of 2026, an eightfold increase from the same period a year earlier and a new quarterly record for the company. Revenue reached 133 trillion won for the quarter, representing a nearly 70 percent increase year on year. Furthermore, the results surpassed analyst estimates by a significant margin, with the company’s semiconductor division driving close to 95 percent of total operating profit. Strong demand for high-bandwidth memory chips used in AI data centers therefore produced both the revenue and profit outperformance.
Samsung’s semiconductor division has benefited from the sustained build-out of AI infrastructure by hyperscalers and cloud providers who require high-bandwidth memory at volumes that consistently exceed available supply. Specifically, the company began commercial shipments of its next-generation HBM4 chips earlier this year, after qualification delays allowed rival SK Hynix to establish a dominant position in the high-bandwidth memory market. As a result, the HBM4 launch marks a meaningful step in Samsung’s effort to reclaim competitive ground. Additionally, the company showcased its cutting-edge HBM4E chip at Nvidia’s GTC event last month, where Nvidia confirmed that Samsung’s advanced manufacturing technology will power production of Groq 3 processors.
AI Infrastructure Buildout Rewrites Memory Market Economics
The scale of Samsung’s Q1 performance reflects how completely the AI infrastructure buildout has restructured demand dynamics across the memory chip market. Consequently, the company’s Q1 2026 profit alone exceeded its total operating profit for the entire previous year, illustrating the pace at which AI-driven demand has accelerated beyond historical precedent. Moreover, Citigroup analysts expect Samsung’s annual operating profit to reach the equivalent of approximately $206 billion in 2026, underpinned by strong AI inference demand that they expect to sustain memory pricing through the year.
Samsung shares gained more than four percent in Seoul trading following the preliminary earnings announcement before paring gains to close approximately 1.76 percent higher. Meanwhile, the result adds to a period of strong performance for the company, whose shares gained more than 120 percent in 2025. In contrast, SK Hynix shares rose more than 270 percent over the same period, reflecting the market’s assessment that Samsung’s late entry into commercial HBM4 supply represented a meaningful competitive setback that the company is now actively working to reverse.
