Shares of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix jumped sharply on Wednesday after Samsung released preliminary first-quarter guidance that significantly exceeded market expectations.
For the January-March period, Samsung projected an operating profit of about 57.2 trillion won ($39 billion), representing an eightfold increase from the same quarter a year earlier. The company said the results would amount to a record quarterly profit.
The driver behind the upbeat guidance was strong demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and related chips used in AI data centres. Samsung noted that tight supply in these segments has pushed prices materially higher, supporting margins across its memory business.
Market reaction was immediate. Seoul-listed Samsung shares rose more than 7%, closing at 210,500 won on Wednesday. The stronger-than-expected outlook also lifted sentiment across the semiconductor sector, with investors anticipating broad benefits for memory suppliers.
SK Hynix, another major Korean memory supplier, saw its shares surge nearly 11% to 1,016,000 won as market participants positioned for an extended period of elevated demand for memory products tied to AI workloads.
Samsung’s guidance also pointed to robust top-line momentum, with revenue growth of around 68% signalled for the quarter. That scale of rebound follows a downturn in the memory sector last year, underscoring the magnitude of the recovery in both volume and pricing.
The rally in Korean chip stocks reflects growing confidence among investors that the global semiconductor industry could be entering a prolonged AI-led upswing, driven by major technology firms increasing spending on data centres and advanced computing infrastructure.
While the preliminary figures and market moves highlight a pronounced improvement in fundamentals for memory suppliers, companies and investors remain attentive to how sustained AI-driven demand, supply dynamics, and the cyclicality of the memory market will play out in coming quarters.