Samsung Electronics logs better-than-expected profit in Q1

South Korea's tech giant Samsung Electronics logged a better-than-expected operating profit in the first quarter thanks to strong sales of its flagship Galaxy S25 smartphones, the company said Wednesday.

Samsung's consolidated operating profit added 1.2 percent over the year to 6.69 trillion won (4.7 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-March quarter, beating market expectations of about 5.15 trillion won.

Revenue jumped 10.05 percent to hit an all-time quarterly high of 79.14 trillion won in the first quarter, and net income soared 21.74 percent to 8.22 trillion won.

The positive earnings were attributed to strong sales of smartphones that offset weaker sales of memory chips used in generative artificial intelligence (AI) chipsets.

Samsung's mobile phone and networks business generated an operating profit of 4.3 trillion won on revenue of 37 trillion won in the first quarter.

Both revenue and operating profit advanced compared to the previous quarter, owing to robust sales of the Galaxy S25 series, which features an AI experience.

The company planned to expand its AI smartphone lineup amid weak seasonality in the second quarter and increase its foldable lineup in the second half of this year.

The chip-making business recorded an operating profit of 1.1 trillion won on revenue of 25.1 trillion won in the January-March quarter.

Despite the growing sales of server DRAM, overall earnings were eroded by lower selling prices and a decrease in sales of high bandwidth memory (HBM) products used in AI chipsets.

Samsung planned to ramp up the production of HBM3E 12H in the second quarter, predicting a high demand for AI-related products.

The display panel unit achieved an operating profit of 500 billion won on revenue of 5.9 trillion won in the first quarter.

Sales of mobile display panels declined compared to the prior quarter on the back of seasonality, but sales of large display panels improved following the launch of new QD-OLED monitor products.

Samsung will stably supply new mobile display panels such as foldables in the second quarter, forecasting a higher demand for gaming monitors.

The TV and home appliance division logged an operating profit of 300 billion won on revenue of 14.5 trillion won.

The operating profit mounted on a quarterly basis due to solid TV sales of Neo QLEDs, OLEDs and large models of over 75 inches amid higher products price and lower cost.

The company planned to expand its AI TV lineup in the second quarter and enhance it in the second half.

Samsung's research and development (R&D) expenditure amounted to 9 trillion won in the first quarter, up 16 percent compared to the same quarter of last year. (1 won equals 0.00070 U.S. dollars)