Samsung Electronics posts record profit on AI demand

SEOUL

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics posted record quarterly profits on Thursday, riding strong market demand for its artificial intelligence chips.

A global AI boom has pushed up prices and shipments of conventional chips, while demand for high bandwidth memory chips, used in servers that power the technology, has soared.

The hunger for chips to power AI has caused a shortage for consumer electronics, threatening higher prices for phones, laptops and other devices.

In a statement, Samsung said that in the quarter ending in December last year, it had posted "its highest-ever quarterly consolidated revenue at 93.8 trillion won ($65.5 billion), representing a quarter-on-quarter increase of 9 percent".

"Operating profit was also an all-time high, at 20.1 trillion won," it added.

Annual revenue stood at 333.6 trillion won, while its operating profit came in at 43.6 trillion won, the firm said.

Samsung attributed the strong earnings to its Device Solutions division, which oversees its semiconductor business, where sales in the last quarter rose 33 percent.

Its memory business also posted an "all-time high for quarterly revenue and operating profit," it said.

Samsung pointed to a $33.2 billion investment in chip production facilities, pledging to continue spending in "transitioning to advanced manufacturing processes and upgrading existing production lines to meet rising demand."

The South Korean company said it expects "AI and server demand to continue increasing, leading to more opportunities for structural growth".