Samsung Electronics' semiconductor division raised its annual operating profit forecast to 370 trillion won. This internal revision marks a significant increase from the 330 trillion won projected in June. The upgrade is driven by surging demand and rising prices for memory chips used in artificial intelligence applications.
Market conditions show spot prices for high-margin DDR5 server modules have more than doubled since the end of August. Inventory levels at major memory manufacturers are reportedly low.
Samsung is reallocating manufacturing capacity to prioritize high-bandwidth memory (HBM). The Cheonan plant will transition to HBM packaging and phase out packaging for Exynos mobile processors. Consequently, the company will outsource a larger share of conventional memory production, including DDR5 modules and SSDs, to external partners.