Samsung Electronics reported a fourth-quarter operating profit of 6.5 trillion won (US$4.46 billion), more than doubling from the same period last year but missing market expectations.

The profit was 15.7% below the average analyst estimate of 7.72 trillion won (US$5.29 billion) and marked a 29.19% decline from the third-quarter’s 9.18 trillion won (US$6.29 billion).

Lower sales in its device solutions division, including memory and foundry operations, were cited as key reasons for the decline.

The company faced sluggish demand for PCs, mobile phones, and home appliances, despite strong server memory sales.

A delay in securing Nvidia’s approval for Samsung’s high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips further impacted performance, raising concerns about its competition with SK hynix in the HBM chip market.

Recent Samsung developments