South Korea’s Samsung Electronics expects its profits to triple in the final three months of last year, reaching a record high, as memory prices surge amid booming demand tied to artificial intelligence. 

The world’s largest memory chipmaker estimated that operating profit reached 20 trillion won and consolidated sales of about 93 trillion won in the fourth quarter, according to an earnings guidance released Thursday. 

The profit projections mark a significant improvement from a year earlier and would surpass Samsung’s long-standing record of 17.6 trillion won set in the third quarter of 2018. 

The surge comes as chipmakers like Nvidia clamor for limited supplies of memory chips used for AI applications. 

As memory companies prioritize capacity to meet that lucrative demand, it has contributed to a shortage across the broader market, affecting chips used in personal computers and mobile devices.

“The memory market has entered a ‘Hyper-Bull’ phase, with current conditions eclipsing the historic 2018 peak. Supplier leverage is at an all-time high, driven by an insatiable demand for AI and server capacity,” Counterpoint Research said in a report Wednesday. 

The market watcher estimates memory prices surged 40%-50% in the final quarter of 2025, and expects similar gains in the first quarter of 2026, followed by a roughly 20% rise in the second quarter.

While these market dynamics have pushed manufacturing costs for most consumer electronics makers, they have been a boon for memory giants like Samsung and its main competitors in the space, SK Hynix and Micron. 

Samsung shares have gained over 145% over the past 12 months and were up 0.5% on Thursday in choppy trading. 

The consumer tech giant continues to trail SK Hynix in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips used in AI processors like those from Nvidia. Expanding its HBM production capacity is expected to be a major focus for the company in the new year.

Samsung is set to release its audited earnings and hold its quarterly earnings call later this month.