Samsung sees limited first-quarter earnings growth due to weak chips business

The profit was down 29% from the previous quarter, but in line with the preliminary fourth-quarter figure the company reported earlier this month.

Seoul: Samsung Electronics said on Friday it expected limited first-quarter earnings growth due to weak memory chip business conditions, as it continues to work towards providing high-end chips to Nvidia .

"In the first quarter of 2025... overall earnings improvement may be limited due to weakness in the semiconductors business," Samsung said in a statement.

The world's largest memory chip maker confirmed on Friday that operating profit rose to 6.5 trillion won ($4.49 billion) in the fourth quarter, up from 2.82 trillion won a year earlier when the memory chip industry was still struggling with its worst downturn in decades.

The profit was down 29 per cent from the previous quarter, but in line with the preliminary fourth-quarter figure the company reported earlier this month.

Operating profit in Samsung's mobile phone business fell 22 per cent to 2.1 trillion won in the fourth quarter from a year earlier. Its chip division swung to an operating profit of 2.9 trillion won from a year earlier, but that was down by about 26 per cent from the preceding quarter.

Shares in Samsung were down 2.2 per cent in early trade, versus a 1 per cent drop in the wider market.