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Samsung Electronics reported that it is expected that the weak demand for memory chips will limit the profit in the current quarter, with its problems that the United States restricts to provide semiconductors used in artificial intelligence devices.
South Korea said on Friday that it expects to start requesting the total memory chips to recover in the second quarter. Its shares fell about 2.5 percent due to disappointment in the expectations of weak profits.
“In the first quarter of 2025. Samsung, the world's largest memory maker, said in a statement,” improving profits in general may be limited due to poor semiconductor actions. “
“There will be some temporary restrictions on chips sales (high -frequency domain memory) in the first quarter. We expect some effect on our HBM request not only American restrictions on high -end chips exports but Also turned on the demand for chips by the main customers.
Samsung was put pressure after failing to ride the investment wave of artificial intelligence. His HBM AI chips did not comply with the capabilities of SK Hynix, and she did not get a approval from NVIDIA, a main agent. Samsung has also been exposed to a strong DRAM chip cycle due to its largest exposure to the potatoes of goods and the escalation of Chinese competitors such as CXMT.
SK Hynix shares decreased up to 12 percent in the morning on Friday, with the reopening of the markets after the lunar day's break – catching a knee Fears This great spending on data centers may have reached its peak, with Dibsic model for artificial intelligence budget Which leads to panic in the future.
Samsung executive officials told the analysts on Friday that the company reduces its exposure to the traditional sediments of memory, focusing more on the top margin chips used in artificial intelligence servers, where the demand remains “strong”. However, the contract of contracting in the contract remained weak amid the pleasant demand for the chips used in smartphones and computers.
He said that her investment in memory chips would be similar to last year. The company informed the total capital spending of 53.6 Train (37 billion dollars) last year, with the largest part to the chips unit.
Samsung reorganized its team of engineers To enhance her HBM's competitiveness, but the President of Nafidia Sinsen Huang said this month that Samsung was so “New design engineer” To provide HBM chips with his company, although he added that they “can do this and that they are working very quickly.”
For the first timeSK Hynix Samsung has exceeded a quarterly profit in the fourth quarter, driven by its progress in HBM sales, which expects to double this year. The Samsung chips department reported a 2.9TN profit in the quarter to the quarter of October to December, a decrease of 26 percent from the previous quarter.
“Samsung has lost its leadership in HBMS and it seems that even in the memory of basic commodities, it is more exposed to Chinese competition,” said Sanjif Rana, head of stock research in Korea at CLSA.
He added: “Hynix was more flexible because they had this large part of the revenue from the demand for HBM, which is really good.” “China's production of basic commodity memory was growing and could capture in the coming months. There are some concerns about it as well.”
