Samsung Electronics Co Ltd reported record quarterly revenue and operating profit for the three months ended December 31, 2025, driven largely by outsized demand from the artificial intelligence industry for advanced memory products.
The company posted an operating profit of 20 trillion won ($13.98 billion), matching its own guidance and rising to more than three times the 6.49 trillion won recorded in the same quarter a year earlier. Quarterly revenue increased to 93 trillion won, up from 75.79 trillion won a year ago. Samsung said both revenue and operating profit were the highest in the companys history.
The gains were concentrated in Samsungs memory chip business, where sales and margins improved as the firm shipped larger volumes of advanced high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips and other processors used by AI data centers. The company and market observers noted that memory chip prices climbed sharply through the fourth quarter and are expected to continue rising in the near term on the strength of AI-related demand.
In its statement on the quarter, Samsung said: "In Q1 2026, the ongoing AI boom is expected to continue driving favorable market conditions across the industry, and the Memory Business plans to keep prioritizing high-value-added products for AI applications."
Samsung says it largely closed the gap with peers Micron Technology Inc and SK Hynix Inc during 2025 in developing and mass-producing advanced HBM chips for AI. The company also secured a major data center contract with the AI startup OpenAI to supply chips and to construct data centers in South Korea. Recent reports indicated Samsung plans to begin producing advanced HBM chips for NVIDIA in February.
The strength of the memory business helped offset weaker sales in other Samsung segments. The company cited a slowdown in smartphone shipments, display module sales and camera sensor volumes during the fourth quarter, but said robust chip demand cushioned the overall results.
Market context and corporate positioning
Samsungs quarterly outcomes underscore the central role of advanced memory in supporting AI compute infrastructure. The companys focus on higher-value memory products for AI workloads was highlighted in its forward-looking commentary, which expects the AI-driven market dynamics to remain favorable in the early months of 2026.
While the report emphasized memory as the primary driver, Samsungs broad product mix meant that gains in chips were offset in part by soft demand across consumer hardware and display-related businesses during the period.
Short summary of results
- Operating profit: 20 trillion won for Q4 2025, in line with company guidance and up from 6.49 trillion won a year earlier.
- Revenue: 93 trillion won, up from 75.79 trillion won year-on-year; both figures were company records for a quarter.
- Primary driver: Strong sales and improved margins in the memory chip division, led by advanced HBM and AI-focused memory products.