Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest memory chipmaker, reported a record 750 percent increase in first-quarter operating profit on Thursday, driven by a 49-fold surge in income from its chip unit, amid a bonanza from worldwide spending on AI infrastructure and soaring memory prices.
The company said that while it is sharply increasing capital spending to meet demand, it expects memory shortages to deepen into next year.
Shortages
“Based solely on the demand currently received for 2027, the supply-to-demand gap for 2027 is set to widen even further than in 2026,” said Kim Jaejune, a Samsung memory chip executive, on a call with analysts.
Samsung said it has signed multi-year binding contracts with multiple unidentified customers looking to lock in supplies.
Quarterly revenue for the company overall rose 69 percent year-on-year, with profits in line with Samsung’s expectations at 57.2 trillion won (£28.5bn).
The chip division alone accounted for 53.7tn won for the quarter, up from only 1.1tn won in the same quarter a year earlier.
Overall profits for the quarter were higher than Samsung’s entire 2025 annual profit of 43.6tn won.
Pay row
Samsung workers are considering strike action over pay, after competitor SK Hynix paid record bonuses.
US tech giants including Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta this week signalled they would maintain huge AI infrastructure spending commitments this year, now expected to total as much as $700bn (£514bn) for 2026 alone.
