Samsung Electronics triples profit as HBM revenues rocket up

Samsung Electronics’ ₩93.8 trillion ($65.58 billion) revenues for its final 2o25 quarter was up 24% year/year but its profits tripled, reaching ₩20.1 trillion ($14.1 billion), because memory revenues soared with high-bandwidth memory (HBM) leading the way.

This echoes SK Hynix’ results yesterday and exemplifies the pricing strength of the three HBM suppliers; Micron is the third, in the face of unrelenting demand growth from AI accelerator suppliers such as Nvidia and AMD.

Samsung Electronic’s full year revenues were ₩333.6 trillion ($233.2 billion), up just 10.9 percent on 2024. The memory revenue boom started quite late in the year, too late to substantially affect its full year revenue number.

Samsung’s DRAM and HBM is the responsibility of its Device Solutions (DS) division which had revenues of ₩44 trillion ($30.8 billion), up 46.2 percent Y/Y. The division provides memory (DRAM, HBM, NAND and SSDs), along with a Systems LSI business and also a custom semiconductor Foundry business. Samsung did not break out the individual revenue numbers for any of these DS operating units, nor did it say, as it has previously done, what the Memory Business revenues were.

Counterpoint Research said: “Samsung reclaimed the top spot in memory with ₩37.1 trillion ($25.9 billion) in revenue.” Research Director MS Hwang said: “Samsung is clearly back and we’re expecting them to show a significant turnaround with HBM4 for Nvidia’s new products – helping them move past last year’s quality issues. Looking at where we are in terms of AI infrastructure investments, it is crucial to lead in both quality and supply of GPUs, the HBMs integrated with them, and server DRAMs used in AI servers – SK Hynix maintains a market lead in both areas.”

If the ₩37.1 trillion number is correct them Samsung saw a 61.3 percent jump in Memory Business revenues Y/Y.

Samsung did say the Memory Business set “an all-time high for quarterly revenue and operating profit, driven by expanded sales of HBM and other high-value-added products, as well as the overall market price surge.” It “achieved record highs in quarterly revenue and operating profit by addressing strong conventional DRAM demand while expanding HBM sales amid an overall increase in prices. High-value products include HBM, server DDR5 DRAM and enterprise SSDs.”

HBM is vital, with Samsung saying “The Memory Business is on track to begin delivering HBM4 products this quarter — including those with industry-leading 11.7 Gbps performance — with the aim of re-establishing a leadership position in the high-end HBM market.” SK Hynix is the current HBM market leader. Samsung will also look to sell DRAM products, such as DDR5, SOCAMM2 and GDDR7, now describing them as being AI-related.

In the NAND area, it will “focus on scaling up sales of high-performance TLC products for Key Value SSD demand for inference.” There is no mention of QLC (4bits/cells) SSDs here, which SK Hynix subsidiary Solidigm supplies, and on which SK Hynix has a development focus with its AIN-D project.

In contrast to the Memory Business, earnings for the System LSI Business declined in Q4 2025, but earnings are expected to recover this year with new product launches. Revenue for the Foundry Business increased in the fourth 2025 quarter “on strong demand from customers in major markets, while earnings improvement was limited as a result of provisional costs. The Business also commenced mass production of first-generation 2nm products and began shipments of 4nm HBM base-die products.”

For the future, Samsung’s DS division “expects AI and server demand to continue increasing, leading to more opportunities for structural growth. In response, the division will continue to focus on profitability via a strong emphasis on high-performance products. … particularly by expanding the sales of AI-related offerings in both DRAM and NAND.”

Samsung’s Device eXperience (DX) Division experienced an 8 percent sequential revenue decline to reduced launch effects from new smartphone models, as well as intense market competition. In 2026 the DX Division plans to expand AI-driven product offerings and integrate AI technologies across the full device, feature and service ecosystem.

Both Samsung and SK Hynix expect memory supply to lag demand through to 2027. Counterpoint Research Senior Analyst Jeongku Choi noted, “2026 is projected to be a ‘Golden Era’ for the memory industry, as the mass production of HBM4 aligns with the maximization of profitability in conventional DRAM.”