Samsung to See Eightfold Profit Surge on AI Chip Boom

Samsung expects an eight-fold increase in its Q1 profit, driven by surging demand for its AI chips. The stock surged 5% following this announcement. Analysts expect record-breaking Q1 operating profit due to AI demand and market conditions.

Samsung Electronics issued a preliminary Q1 2026 earnings guidance pointing to operating profit of approximately 57.2 trillion won (~$37.8 billion USD), a more than eightfold increase year-over-year and roughly triple the company's prior quarterly record of 20.07 trillion won set in Q4 2025. Revenue is expected to come in around 133 trillion won, up ~70% year-over-year, driven by surging demand for AI memory chips and a sharp recovery in DRAM and NAND pricing.

The primary catalyst is broad AI-driven memory price inflation rather than HBM alone — while Samsung began shipping HBM4 chips to NVDA in February 2026, HBM still accounts for less than 10% of Q1 DRAM revenue per Heungkuk Securities estimates. The bigger driver is commodity DRAM and NAND, where supply remains constrained against hyperscaler data center buildouts. AMZN, MSFT, and GOOGL all accelerated server procurement in Q1, tightening the memory market.

Samsung shares rose approximately 5% on the guidance release, extending a recovery from lows hit earlier in 2026 when HBM yield concerns and SK Hynix competition weighed on sentiment. The results position Samsung as a primary beneficiary of the AI infrastructure supercycle, though investors will closely watch whether HBM market share gains — critical for long-term margin expansion — accelerate in H2 2026 as the HBM4 ramp scales.