🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Samsung’s profit leaned on one division while lower chip prices squeezed other units

• Samsung’s standout quarter came mostly from its Device Solutions (DS) division, which makes memory chips and other semiconductor parts. It generated more than 90% of total earnings 1.
• DS posted 53.7 trillion won (US$36.5 billion) in operating profit, up from about 1 trillion won (US$680 million) a year earlier 1.
• That single quarter topped Samsung’s full-year operating profit of 43.6 trillion won (US$29.6 billion) in 2025 1.
• Samsung tied the jump to tight supply. The company expects memory supply to stay well short of demand, and some customers are pulling in orders planned for 2027 1.
• SK Hynix still led the high-margin High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) market, a type of advanced memory used in AI chips, with a 57% revenue share in the final quarter of last year 1.

The AI boom is pushing Apple to look beyond TSMC for chip production

• Apple has held early talks with Samsung and Intel as pressure grows on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker 2.
• Apple discussed Intel’s chipmaking services and visited a Samsung plant being built in Texas. Neither path has produced any orders 2.
• Shortages have come from the AI data center build-out and stronger Mac demand from customers who want to run AI models locally 2.
• Chip limits have held back growth. Tim Cook said the bottleneck is access to advanced manufacturing processes for Apple’s systems-on-a-chip, not memory 2.
• This gives Samsung and Intel a chance to win Apple’s business, though Apple still has concerns about moving away from TSMC and may decide not to proceed 2.