Samsung Electronics' Q4 Operating Profit of 6.5 Trillion Last Year...29% compared to the previous year ↓

Nvidia Jensen Huang "Testing Samsung Electronics' HBM"

Samsung Electronics' operating profit in the fourth quarter of last year was KRW 6.5 trillion

Operating Profit Down 29% Compared to Q3...Sales also fell 5.2%.

[Anchor]
Samsung Electronics announced its business performance in the fourth quarter of last year.

The stock market, which originally expected 8 trillion won, lowered its forecast to 7 trillion won, but it was tentatively counted as 6.5 trillion won, which did not meet even this.

In the meantime, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said he is still testing Samsung Electronics' high-bandwidth memory.

I'll connect you to a reporter and find out more.

Reporter Hwang Hye-kyung! First, please tell us about Samsung Electronics' fourth-quarter performance.

[Reporter]
Yes, Samsung Electronics disclosed its provisional performance in the fourth quarter of last year through the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system this morning.

Operating profit was 6.5 trillion won, down 29% from the previous three quarters.

Sales also fell 5.2% compared to the third quarter to 75 trillion won.

Earlier, securities firms predicted Samsung's operating profit to reach 7 trillion won due to the slowing mobile industry, an oversupply of memory, and a drop in the "Foundry" operation rate, which means consignment production of semiconductors.

It's a worse performance than this.

In response to this, Samsung Electronics released an unusual explanatory data.

First, the memory business achieved record sales due to expansion of high-capacity products amid weak demand for existing memory products, but
The explanation is that
has increased R&D costs and initial costs for expanding production capacity, resulting in a decrease in performance.

In the non-memory sector, it also said that its performance fell due to a drop in utilization rates and increased R&D costs amid sluggish demand such as mobile.

Samsung Electronics also analyzes that increased marketing costs and the off-season ahead of the launch of new products have also affected it.

[Anchor]
In the meantime, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang mentioned Samsung Electronics' high bandwidth memory?

[Reporter]
Yes, CEO Hwang said at a press conference held at CES, the world's largest consumer electronics and IT exhibition, "We are currently testing Samsung Electronics' high bandwidth memory, HBM, and we are confident that it will succeed."

He added, "I'm confident of Samsung's success as if I can be sure that the day after Tuesday is Wednesday."

When asked why the test takes so long, he answered, "Korea is trying to do it in a hurry, but it doesn't take this long."

"Samsung has to do a new design and can do it," he said, stressing that he is "working very quickly and committed."

HBM is a high-value, high-performance product that vertically connects several DRAMs to speed up data processing compared to existing DRAMs.

SK Hynix is already delivering to Nvidia, but Samsung Electronics is undergoing testing.

Earlier in March last year, CEO Hwang said at Nvidia's annual developer conference that he was testing Samsung Electronics' HBM, but it is still testing it for more than 10 months.

However, despite the news, Samsung Electronics shares are soaring due to the influx of foreign buying.

It started more than 1% lower at the open on selling by foreigners and institutions, but has since turned to net buying, showing an upward trend.

I'm YTN's Hwang Hyekyung.