The agency stated it anticipated improved earnings within the second half if “uncertainties are diminished”.
The outcomes come as Seoul and Washington work to craft a “commerce bundle” meant to roll again US President Donald Trump’s new tariffs forward of the July 8 expiration of a reciprocal tariff freeze.
Samsung Electronics is the flagship subsidiary of South Korean large Samsung Group, by far the biggest of the family-controlled conglomerates that dominate enterprise in Asia’s fourth-largest financial system.
The world’s largest reminiscence chipmaker reported web revenue of 8.22 trillion received ($5.75 billion) for the January-March quarter, up 21.7 p.c on-year.
Gross sales rose 10 p.c to an all-time quarterly excessive of 79.14 trillion received and working revenue rose 1.2 p.c to six.7 trillion received on-year, exceeding forecasts based on Yonhap Information Company, which cited its personal monetary information agency.South Korea — one of many United States’ key buying and selling companions and residential to powerhouse chip and auto industries — earlier this month additionally unveiled an extra $5 billion funding in its semiconductor trade, citing “rising uncertainty” stemming from US tariffs.The figures had been “on the again of robust gross sales of flagship Galaxy S25 smartphones and high-value-added merchandise,” the corporate stated in an announcement.
“Regardless of the rising macroeconomic uncertainties as a consequence of latest international commerce tensions and slowing international financial development,” Samsung stated it “expects its efficiency to enhance within the second half of the 12 months,” assuming “that the uncertainties are diminished”.
Analysts additionally attributed the leads to half to report gross sales of the brand new Galaxy S25 collection smartphone, which launched in February.
The agency’s “early introduction of AI options, starting with the Galaxy S24 and enhanced additional within the S25, gave it a powerful aggressive edge,” Sheng Win Chow, an analyst at Canalys, advised AFP.
“The mixture of native on-device AI capabilities and Google Gemini apps provided customers a wealthy suite of AI features proper out of the field, creating robust pull components for early adopters.”
However consultants expressed issues as greater than half of Samsung’s smartphones are manufactured in Vietnam, the place steep tariffs of as much as 46 p.c might be imposed if commerce negotiations between Washington and Hanoi break down.
In response to analyst Chow, greater than 90 p.c of Samsung’s US smartphone shipments originate from Vietnam, and to successfully mitigate dangers, the corporate “would wish to ramp up manufacturing and export of higher-end fashions just like the Galaxy S25 collection from India”.
However “this shift would require time and operational changes,” he added.
– Commerce tensions –
Regardless of greater than a 12 months of efforts to shut the hole with South Korean rival SK hynix, Samsung has struggled to provide excessive volumes of high-bandwidth reminiscence (HBM) chips to Nvidia, a number one participant within the AI chip market.
The corporate has leaned extra on Chinese language shoppers in consequence, however the market in China now faces mounting strain as Washington strikes to additional tighten chip export guidelines.
Washington has already restricted exports to China, the world’s greatest purchaser of chips, of Nvidia’s most refined graphics processing models (GPUs), designed to energy top-end AI fashions.
In the meantime, Chinese language startup DeepSeek has emerged as a formidable challenger, making waves in January with its R1 chatbot, matching the efficiency of its US opponents at a decrease value.
“For many nations, excluding China, considerably lowered basic tariffs may be anticipated relying on negotiation,” MS Hwang, a analysis director at Counterpoint, advised AFP.
“Nevertheless, as a consequence of strengthened export restrictions on China, there stays strain (on Samsung) on the second-half gross sales of merchandise like HBM.”
Gloria Tsuen, a Moody’s Rankings vice chairman and senior credit score officer, stated Samsung’s “management within the semiconductor market had eroded over the previous few years,” particularly within the “AI and high-end merchandise in its reminiscence segments”.
“Concurrently, competitors from Chinese language firms in low-end reminiscence merchandise is rising,” she advised AFP.
“In consequence, we count on Samsung’s working margin to stay average.”
