SEOUL, January 31 (AJP) - Samsung Electronics reported fourth-quarter operating profit of 6.49 trillion won ($4.87 billion), falling 15 percent short of market expectations as its key semiconductor business showed weaker-than-anticipated performance despite higher sales of premium memory chips.
The world's largest memory chip maker posted revenue of 75.79 trillion won ($52.6 billion) in the fourth quarter, down 4 percent from the previous quarter. Its semiconductor division recorded an operating profit of 2.9 trillion won ($2.0126 billion) despite achieving record quarterly sales in its memory business.
The company's device solutions division (DS), which includes its semiconductor business, saw mixed results. While high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and high-capacity DDR5 (Double Data Rate 5) server chips drove record memory sales, increased research and development costs and initial ramp-up expenses for advanced manufacturing processes offset potential gains.
System LSI and foundry businesses both reported declining profits due to weak mobile demand and higher R&D spending, while the mobile experience division saw reduced earnings following diminished effects from new flagship product launches.
The tech giant's facility investments reached a record high of 53.6 trillion won ($37.2 billion) for the full year, with 46.3 trillion won ($32.1 billion) allocated to semiconductors. Research and development spending also hit an all-time high of 35 trillion won ($24.29 billion) annually, with 10.3 trillion won ($7.14 billion) spent in the fourth quarter alone.
For the full year 2024, Samsung reported operating profit of 32.73 trillion won ($22.7 billion), up 398.34 percent year-on-year, with revenue reaching 300.87 trillion won ($208.6 billion), marking only the second time in its history that annual revenue has exceeded 300 trillion won.
Looking ahead to 2025, the company expects continued weakness in the semiconductor market through the first half, while focusing on expanding its artificial intelligence-related product portfolio and strengthening its premium product lineup across divisions.
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