Samsung profit rises 51 percent partly due to high demand for memory chips

Samsung made an operating profit of 10.5 billion euros in the past quarter. That is an increase of 51 percent compared to a year earlier. According to the tech giant, this is due to the increasing demand for memory chips and good sales of the S22 Ultra.

Samsung writes that it achieved a total turnover of 58 billion euros in the first quarter of 2022. About 20 billion of that comes from Samsung’s memory division, which produces both dram and nandflash. The tech company writes that the demand for memory chips for servers has reached an all-time high and that the turnover from consumer chips has also increased. In addition, memory prices fell less than analysts had predicted.

In total, Samsung’s memory division made a profit of 6.3 billion euros. Demand at Samsung Foundry, the company’s chip production arm, was also high, according to Samsung. The company expects the chip shortages to continue into the second half of this year. Samsung further emphasizes the imminent arrival of its 3nm process with gate-all-around transistors. It is officially on the roadmap for the first half of 2022, although recently messages went around that the planning can be delayed due to disappointing yields.

Samsung’s smartphone division achieved a turnover of 24.2 billion euros in the past quarter and a profit of more than 2.8 billion euros. According to the manufacturer, this was lower than in the previous quarter and in the first quarter of 2021, partly due to the seasonal sensitivity of smartphones and ‘geopolitical uncertainties’. The Galaxy S22 Ultra and more affordable 5G smartphones did well, according to Samsung.

Furthermore, Samsung Display turned over 5.9 billion euros in turnover and 814 million euros in profit. The tech giant reports an increase in revenue from smartphone screens, among other things. The company also says that its ‘QD screens’ have been well received. In the past quarter, the company introduced its first QD OLED panels and the first Samsung televisions with such a screen will appear in May. Samsung confirms that it will continue the QD OLED development and, among other things, wants to come up with foldable variants, including for the EV market. There have been rumors about this before.