Despite the looming US trade hostilities, South Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics announced a 1.2 percent increase in first-quarter operating profit, driven by robust smartphone sales.
The company is the flagship unit of the massive South Korean conglomerate Samsung Group, which is by far the biggest of the family-run businesses that govern the fourth-largest economy in Asia.
For the January–March quarter, the biggest chipmaker in the world posted an operating profit of 6.68 trillion won ($4.6 billion), up 1.2 percent year over year.
Net profit increased 21.7 percent to 8.22 trillion won and sales increased 10 percent to 79.14 trillion won year over year, surpassing projections.
The outcome comes as Washington and Seoul attempt to draft a "trade package" aimed at removing new US tariffs before a reciprocal tariff moratorium expires on July 8.
Earlier this month, South Korea, one of the US's most important trading partners and the location of the dominant chip and auto sectors, announced an additional $5 billion investment in its semiconductor sector, citing "growing uncertainty" brought on by US tariffs.
Record sales of the new Galaxy S25 series smartphone, which debuted in February, were partly responsible for the first-quarter operating profit that was better than anticipated, according to analysts.
Even after over a year of trying to catch up to South Korean competitor SK Hynix, Samsung has had trouble providing large quantities of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips to Nvidia, a market leader in AI chips.
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Gloria Tsuen, a Moody's Ratings vice president and senior credit officer, said Samsung's "leadership in the semiconductor market had eroded over the last few years," especially in the "AI and high-end products in its memory segments."