Samsung Electronics' operating profit and revenue beat Analysts estimated Wednesday that as sales of its flagship Galaxy S25 smartphones grow, as well as sales of memory chips.

The South Korean company's quarterly revenue rose 10% from the same period last year, while its first-quarter operating profit climbed 1.5%.

Here is the first quarter results for Samsung compared to LSEG SmartEstimates, which are forecasts for analysts that are more consistent:

• income: 79.1 trillion South Korea wins (US$55.4 billion) and 78.1 trillion South Korea won
• Operating profit: 6.6 trillion South Korea won with 6.4 trillion South Korea

Revenues were slightly higher than Samsung's 79 trillion Koreans in the first quarter, and operating profits were higher than the company's expectations for the 6.6 trillion Korean won.

Samsung is a leading maker of memory chips that can be used in devices such as laptops and servers, and is also the world's second largest smartphone maker.

The company has imposed macroeconomic uncertainty due to trade tensions and global growth. Samsung expects performance improvements in the second half of the year, "assuming uncertainty is reduced."

Samsung's electronic chip business's operating profit won the South Korean championship of 1.1 trillion in the first quarter, down from the same period last year and the same period, despite rising revenues.

"For memory business, revenue is addressed by expanded server DRAM sales and other NAND needs in the event of lower market prices," the company said.

DRAM and NAND are the types of semiconductor memory found in PCs, workstations, and servers. Demand for such memory chips has soared on the back of the AI ​​boom.

However, the overall revenue was affected by the average sales price and sales reduction affected by the US AI chip export control, and the overall revenue was affected.

Samsung has been a leader in memory chips lately and has been lagging behind its local rival SK Hynix, which can benefit from AI development.

A report by Counterpoint Research earlier this month said SK Hynix surpassed Samsung's overall DRAM market revenue for the first time, with a global market share of 36% compared to Samsung's 34%.

The report adds that this is partly due to SK Hynix's dominance in high bandwidth memory or HBM - a DRAM used in an AI server where chips are stacked vertically to save space and reduce power consumption.

SK Hynix exceeded quarterly revenue last week and estimated strong demand for its high bandwidth memory products.

Samsung said it also experienced deferred HBM demand in the first quarter due to expectations that Samsung will launch its latest HBM product soon.

During the quarter, Samsung expects demand for AI servers to continue to be strong and will seek to strengthen its position in high-value products including HBM.

Correction: The story has been revised to reflect that operating profits in the CHIP space have declined on a quarter-quarter and year-on-year basis.