Samsung Smashes Profit Records Thanks to Massive AI Memory Chip Boom

Samsung just reported the most profitable quarter in its history, and artificial intelligence is the reason. The South Korean tech giant posted operating profit of 57.2 trillion won, roughly 38.5 billion dollars, for the first quarter of 2026. That figure is up more than 750 percent from the same period last year and exceeds Samsung's entire full-year profit for 2025.

AI Memory Chips Drive a Historic Surge

The semiconductor division accounted for nearly all of the gains. Chip sales hit 81.7 trillion won, a 225 percent jump year over year, with the memory business setting a new quarterly sales record. Samsung credited the surge to what it called "high-value-added AI demand" combined with limited supply across the industry that pushed memory prices higher.

High-bandwidth memory, known as HBM, sits at the center of this growth. HBM chips are specialized memory modules stacked vertically to deliver the massive data throughput that AI training and inference workloads require. Every major cloud provider building GPU-powered data centers needs HBM, and demand currently outstrips supply. Samsung began mass-producing its latest HBM4 chips earlier this year, becoming the first company to ship them to customers.

The Race With SK Hynix Heats Up

Despite the record results, Samsung still trails rival SK Hynix in the HBM market. SK Hynix secured early contracts with Nvidia and built a lead that Samsung has been working to close. Analysts note that Samsung has improved significantly with its HBM4 capabilities, and the company says it is on track to deliver first samples of the even more advanced HBM4E chips, designed for next-generation AI servers, in the coming months.

Total company revenue reached 133.9 trillion won, roughly 90 billion dollars, beating analyst estimates of 132.69 trillion won. The semiconductor division alone generated 53.7 trillion won in operating profit, compared to approximately one trillion won in the same quarter last year. Samsung expects strong memory demand to continue into the second quarter as AI infrastructure buildouts accelerate worldwide.

The results highlight how deeply AI has reshaped the semiconductor industry. Companies that make the memory and processors powering AI workloads are seeing demand unlike anything in the chip sector's history.