Samsung posts record profit and weighs Galaxy price hikes

Samsung printed absurd money off memory chips, flexed HBM4 plans, and still feels squeezed on phones, setting up possible Galaxy price hikes.

Blowout quarter driven by memory

• Samsung Electronics posted monster fourth-quarter numbers.
• Sales hit 93.8 trillion won.
• Operating profit spiked to 20.1 trillion won.
• Memory demand did the heavy lifting.

Semiconductors are doing the work

• Chip revenue reached 44 trillion won.
• Semiconductor profit jumped over fivefold.
• Memory alone pulled 37.1 trillion won.
• AI workloads keep feeding demand.

HBM4 momentum builds

• Samsung plans mass HBM4 shipments next quarter.
• Target throughput hits 11.7Gbps.
• The speed clears current GPU requirements.
• Supply discussions center on NVIDIA.

Competitive positioning

• TrendForce flags Samsung’s tech edge.
• Compute-near-memory processes boost performance.
• Advanced fabrication sharpens yields.
• Share gains look realistic.

Mobile division under pressure

• Smartphone sales rose modestly.
• Mobile profit slid year over year.
• Costs keep climbing.
• Demand softens seasonally.

Galaxy pricing tension

• Samsung weighs price increases for Galaxy S26.
• Proposed hikes range from 44,000 to 88,000 won.
• Select markets feel it first.
• The move breaks a recent no-hike streak.

Near-term outlook

• Memory pricing and supply stay volatile.
• AI storage pushes TLC SSD expansion.
• Camera roadmap leans into 200MP sensors.
• Second-generation 2nm process ramps.