Samsung’s Q4 earnings are up despite lackluster demand for its memory chips

Samsung had a strong end to 2024 as its revenues reached KRW 75.8 trillion ($52.1 billion) during the October – December quarter. The figure is 12% higher than the Q4 2023 revenues. Q4 operating profits totaled KRW 6.5 trillion ($4.47 billion), representing a 130% year-on-year jump.

In addition, annual revenue for 2024 reached $207 billion – up from 178.3 billion for the previous financial year. This was Samsung’s second-highest annual revenue figure, only surpassed by 2022’s $244 billion.

Profits for the 2024 financial year climbed to $22.5 billion – a five-fold increase compared to the $4.5 billion for 2023. Despite the seemingly positive numbers, Samsung actually fell short of market expectations largely due to weak demand for its AI and personal computing chips.

Samsung’s high-bandwidth (HBM) chips and the HBM3E chips, in particular, failed to receive certification from Nvidia to be used in the latter’s AI accelerators. DRAM and NAND storage chips are also struggling due to competition from other brands. Samsung’s semiconductor business generated $20.68 billion in revenues and $1.99 billion in profit for Q4.

The Mobile eXperience (MX) division which includes smartphones generated $17.8 billion in revenue and $1.45 billion in profit during Q4, which are both down from Q4 2023. Samsung expects strong sales for its newly launched Galaxy S25 series and its upcoming foldable phones.

Looking ahead, Samsung expects increased demand for its image sensors and display panels fueled by the flagship phone launches in Q1. The company’s outlook on the semiconductor business is not particularly favorable in the short term, but it plans to continue investing in R&D to stay competitive.

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