Samsung's profits soared over 900% in the first quarter, benefiting from robust sales of the Galaxy S24 smartphone and a sharp recovery in memory chip prices from a steep low. Quarterly revenue reached ₩71.9156T with memory chip revenue surging 96% to ₩17.49T. The semiconductor business has turned profitable after four consecutive quarters of losses, driven by the AI boom and strong market demand for high-value products such as HBM, DDR5, server-use SSDs, and UFS4.0.
Despite ongoing macroeconomic uncertainties and geopolitical turmoil, Samsung anticipates maintaining a stable and optimistic operational status for the second half of 2024 thanks to strong demand for generative AI. For HBM, Samsung began mass production of the latest 8-layer HBM3E for AI chipsets this month and will start producing 12-layer products in the second quarter. In the DRAM sector, the company is accelerating the supply of 1b nm 32Gb DDR5 and strengthening its competitiveness in the high-density DDR5 module market. In NAND, it will enhance its technological leadership by mass-producing QLC technology for V9 in the third quarter. For smartphones, while optimistic about AI-driven demand in the second half of the year, Samsung indicated that overall smartphone market demand is expected to decline in the second quarter.
Despite ongoing macroeconomic uncertainties and geopolitical turmoil, Samsung anticipates maintaining a stable and optimistic operational status for the second half of 2024 thanks to strong demand for generative AI. For HBM, Samsung began mass production of the latest 8-layer HBM3E for AI chipsets this month and will start producing 12-layer products in the second quarter. In the DRAM sector, the company is accelerating the supply of 1b nm 32Gb DDR5 and strengthening its competitiveness in the high-density DDR5 module market. In NAND, it will enhance its technological leadership by mass-producing QLC technology for V9 in the third quarter. For smartphones, while optimistic about AI-driven demand in the second half of the year, Samsung indicated that overall smartphone market demand is expected to decline in the second quarter.