Samsung Q1 profit tops market expectations
STORY: Samsung Electronics on Thursday estimated a 50% jump in earnings for the first quarter.
It's the highest Q1 profit in four years for South Korea's biggest company.
That's largely thanks to strong demand for microchips and smartphones.
Operating profit clocked in at $11.6 billion dollars and sales jumped 18% from the same period a year earlier.
Analysts said solid demand from data center clients, as well as cautious investment spending by chipmakers buoyed Samsung's chip earnings.
Those earnings make up about half of its total profits.
The chipmaker also likely benefited from a disruption at a rival NAND Flash chip plant owned by Japan's Kioxia and American firm Western Digital.
Samsung also shipped an estimated 72 million smartphones in the first quarter with the Galaxy S22 series selling some 50% more in the first week than the previous model.
