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Samsung Electronics marks highest ever quarterly revenue

Published: 30 Apr. 2025, 17:51

The Samsung Electronics office building in Seocho District, southern Seoul [NEWS1]

Samsung Electronics posted stronger-than-expected first-quarter earnings, buoyed by solid Galaxy S25 sales and a rebound in its semiconductor business. Despite the performance, the company cautioned that uncertainties remain for the second quarter due to global trade tensions and external risks.

Samsung reported on Wednesday a revenue of 79.14 trillion won ($55.65 billion) and an operating profit of 6.69 trillion won for the January to March period. Compared to the same period last year, revenue rose 10.1 percent and operating profit increased 1.2 percent. It marked the company’s highest quarterly revenue on record.

By division, the Device Solutions (DS) unit — which includes semiconductors — logged 25.1 trillion won in sales and 1.1 trillion won in operating profit. The Device Experience (DX) division — which includes mobile, appliances and network products — posted 51.7 trillion won and 4.7 trillion won, respectively.

Samsung Display posted 5.9 trillion won in sales and 500 billion won in profit, while Harman brought in 3.4 trillion won and 300 billion won. These figures include intra-group transactions and may differ slightly from consolidated totals.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Series [SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS]

Smartphones were the primary driver of record-high sales. The Mobile Experience (MX) business posted 37 trillion won in revenue and 4.3 trillion won in operating profit — up 800 billion won from the 3.5 trillion won recorded a year earlier. Despite concerns that the Galaxy S25 series — launched in February — would erode profitability due to unchanged prices and full reliance on Qualcomm chips, the company managed to achieve a double-digit operating margin of 11.6 percent, helped by reduced production costs and falling component prices.

The semiconductor division, once considered a drag on earnings, posted a better-than-expected profit of 1.1 trillion won, driven by solid performance in memory. While this figure is down 800 billion won year-on-year, it exceeded market expectations. Toward the end of the first quarter, shipments of DRAM and NAND flash memory rose sharply as clients stockpiled inventory amid tariff concerns. In addition, China’s “trade-in” subsidy policy — aimed at replacing old electronics — led to stronger sales of smartphones and PCs, further lifting memory demand.

Still, the decline in sales growth for DS was a setback. After bottoming out at 13.7 trillion won in the first quarter of 2023 and growing for seven straight quarters, DS revenue fell 17 percent from the previous quarter to 25.1 trillion won in the first quarter of 2025. Both the System LSI and foundry businesses continued to underperform due to a lack of major clients.

Investor attention now turns to the second quarter. With more than 90 percent of Samsung’s revenue generated overseas, the company remains vulnerable to U.S.-China trade friction and shifting tariff policies. While a strong won-dollar exchange rate has supported exports for now, tighter U.S. export controls on China could dampen global demand for electronics and worsen the outlook.

The Samsung Electronics foundry plant located at the Pyeongtaek campus in Gyeonggi. [SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS]

“We’ll turn today’s challenges into an opportunity for renewed growth, drawing on our accumulated experience and capabilities,” said Chief Financial Officer Park Soon-chul during an earnings conference call on Wednesday. “We are reviewing flexible, strategic use of our global manufacturing and sales hubs based on local conditions.”

Samsung projected a “low-early, high-late” performance trend for the year — with expectations for improvement in the second half as uncertainties ease. The company plans to maintain momentum by launching the ultra-slim Galaxy S25 Edge smartphone in the second quarter. While the second quarter typically sees a dip in MX performance due to fading effects from the Galaxy S launch, Samsung is rolling out a flagship product unusually early to sustain results.

In semiconductors, the company aims to improve performance by ramping up its high bandwidth memory (HBM) supply chain.

“We’ve completed sample deliveries of our upgraded HBM3E products to major clients and expect more customers to begin purchasing them starting in the second quarter,” said Kim Jae-june, vice president of the memory business. “HBM sales bottomed out in the first quarter and will gradually recover each quarter.”

The division is also accelerating development of next-generation HBM4 and customized HBM products.

During the call, Samsung also revealed plans to increase the proportion of executive bonuses paid in company shares.

“We aim to strengthen responsible management and enhance shareholder value by tying executive incentives to both stock performance and business results,” said CFO Park. The company is reportedly working on a plan to pay part of its long-term incentives (LTI) in shares. LTIs are distributed over three years to executives who have worked at the company for at least that long, based on company performance during the prior three-year period.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
LEE GA-RAM [[email protected]]