(LEAD) Samsung Electronics Q1 operating profit surpasses 50 tln won, beats expectations

## Summary
(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead; ADDS byline, details throughout) By Kang Yoon-seung SEOUL, April 7 (Yonhap) -- Samsung Electronics Co. on Tuesday estimated its first-quarter operating profit to have surpassed 50 trillion won (US$33.1 billion) for the first time, driven by strong demand for premium memory chips from the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. The South Korean tech giant projected an operating profit of 57.2 trillion won for the January-March period, surging from 6.61 trillion won a year earlier, according to earnings guidance released by Samsung Electronics. Samsung Electronics' operating profit for all of 2025 was 43.6 trillion won. In the fourth quarter of 2025, Samsung Electronics posted an operating profit of 20 trillion won, which at the time marked a new quarterly high.

## Article Content
(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead; ADDS byline, details throughout)

By Kang Yoon-seung

SEOUL, April 7 (Yonhap) -- Samsung Electronics Co. on Tuesday estimated its first-quarter operating profit to have surpassed 50 trillion won (US$33.1 billion) for the first time, driven by strong demand for premium memory chips from the artificial intelligence (AI) industry.

The South Korean tech giant projected an operating profit of 57.2 trillion won for the January-March period, surging from 6.61 trillion won a year earlier, according to earnings guidance released by Samsung Electronics.

The operating profit was 36.7 percent higher than the average estimate, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.

Samsung Electronics' operating profit for all of 2025 was 43.6 trillion won.

In the fourth quarter of 2025, Samsung Electronics posted an operating profit of 20 trillion won, which at the time marked a new quarterly high.

Revenue rose 68.1 percent on-year to 133 trillion won in the first quarter. Net earnings data was not available.

Samsung Electronics did not provide a detailed breakdown of earnings by business division, although its device solutions unit, which includes the semiconductor segment, is believed to have accounted for a dominant share.

Samsung Electronics has been pushing to expand the supply of sixth-generation high bandwidth memory, or HBM4, this year, targeting strong demand for AI infrastructure.

The company will release its final earnings report later this month.



This file photo taken Jan. 29, 2026, shows Samsung Electronics Co.'s building in southern Seoul. (Yonhap)

colin@yna.co.kr

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## Expert Analysis

### Merits
- (ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead; ADDS byline, details throughout) By Kang Yoon-seung SEOUL, April 7 (Yonhap) -- Samsung Electronics Co. on Tuesday estimated its first-quarter operating profit to have surpassed 50 trillion won (US$33.1 billion) for the first time, driven by strong demand for premium memory chips from the artificial intelligence (AI) industry.
- Samsung Electronics has been pushing to expand the supply of sixth-generation high bandwidth memory, or HBM4, this year, targeting strong demand for AI infrastructure.

### Areas for Consideration
N/A

### Implications
- (ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead; ADDS byline, details throughout) By Kang Yoon-seung SEOUL, April 7 (Yonhap) -- Samsung Electronics Co. on Tuesday estimated its first-quarter operating profit to have surpassed 50 trillion won (US$33.1 billion) for the first time, driven by strong demand for premium memory chips from the artificial intelligence (AI) industry.
- The company will release its final earnings report later this month.

### Expert Commentary
This article covers samsung, electronics, trillion topics. Notable strengths include discussion of samsung. Readability: Flesch-Kincaid grade 0.0. Word count: 252.