Samsung reports revenue increase thanks to mobile phone sales but its chip business suffers

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung Electronics reported Wednesday a sharp increase in consolidated revenue for the first quarter thanks to strong sales of its new smartphones, but its semiconductor business suffered a setback.

The South Korean semiconductor and smartphone giant said in a statement that it posted 79.14 trillion won ($56 billion) in consolidated revenue for the January-March quarter, calling it an all-time quarterly high. It said its operating profit rose to 6.7 trillion won ($4.7 billion), up from 6.61 trillion won ($4.6 billion) in the same period last year.

Samsung attributed the results to strong sales of its flagship Galaxy S25 smartphone and other high-value-added products.

However, the operating profit of the company's semiconductor business fell to 1.1 trillion won ($774 million) from 1.91 trillion won ($1.3 billion) in the corresponding quarter last year.

The company said its profits were squeezed by falling average sale prices, as well as reduced demand for high-bandwidth memory as customers wait for the release of next-generation memory chips.