Samsung's quarterly report proves a challenging time for the South Korean tech giant

Samsung has forecast a challenging first quarter of 2025 after reporting a decrease in operating profit for Q4 2024.

The South Korean tech giant, which had recently launched its Galaxy S25 phone lineup, posted KRW 6.5 trillion (approx. $5.5 billion) in operating profit and KRW 75.8 trillion ($56.5 billion) in revenue for the quarter. That’s a dip from the previous quarter.

Despite this, annual revenue reached KRW 300.9 trillion ($208.5 billion), the second-highest in company history. The slump in Q4 was attributed to weak market conditions, particularly for IT products, and an increase in research and development (R&D) spending.

Looking ahead, Samsung says that it’ll focus on the mobile business through AI smarts on phones (the Galaxy AI, and other things) and premium products. The company is also expected to prioritize innovation in the Device eXperience (DX) division to make up for the “weakness in the semiconductor business.”

The company’s semiconductor business, particularly in memory chips, faces obstacles due to ongoing US restrictions on high-end chip sales to China. But, it is shifting towards high-value products like DDR5 and HBM chips to counteract this.

But still, we can expect the demand for semiconductors to pick up in the second half of this year.

“In 2025, overall memory market demand is expected to recover from the second quarter. The Memory Business is reducing the portion of legacy DRAM and NAND products to align with market demand and accelerating the migration to cutting-edge nodes,” Samsung says.