Galaxy S25 helps Samsung's Q1 profit exceed market expectations

Samsung announced its earnings estimations for the first quarter of this year. The company said it expects a profit of KRW 6.6 trillion (~$4.49 billion) from a revenue of KRW 79 trillion (~$53 billion). These figures are higher than market expectations.

Samsung Electronics' Q1 2025 profit may be 0.15% lower than Q1 2024, but it is much higher (33.5%) than what analysts expected. And that is likely due to better-than-expected performance of the Galaxy S25 series that was launched earlier this year.

According to the average of estimates, the profit was expected to be KRW 4.9 trillion (~$3.3 billion). Samsung hasn't posted the final numbers and division-wise revenue and profit figures yet, and it is expected to do that later this month. But analysts are estimating that the company's semiconductor division had a profit of KRW 1 trillion (~$680 million).

The South Korean firm's earnings are expected to rebound in the next quarter due to recoving memory chip sales, especially from China, and rising chip prices. However, some analysts reportedly remain cautious about growth, as the Trump administrations tariffs are expected to hit the market and Samsung has struggled in getting its high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips certified by Nvidia.

Even if Samsung gets Nvidia's approval for its HBM chips, it might not see much improvement in revenue as its rivals Micron and SK Hynix have sold through all their inventory for the coming year, and Samsung might not have a lot of room to sell its HBM chips.