On May 6, Samsung's stock surged over 15%, pushing the company's market capitalization past $1 trillion. Samsung is now the second Asian company, after TSMC, to reach this milestone.
For the first time, the company crossed the $1 trillion mark on February 26. Now, its shares have exceeded record highs and are on track for the largest single-day gain in history.
This rally followed a strong quarterly report. Samsung's semiconductor division reported record profits in the first quarter, surpassing analysts' expectations.
Operating profit reached 53.7 trillion won ($36 billion), compared to a forecast of 35.3 trillion won. This figure increased 48 times, largely due to high margins on AI infrastructure and data center equipment.
Experts believe that the chip division will continue to set profit records in the coming quarters, as contract prices rise amid limited supply. They cite a more than 180% increase in semiconductor exports from Korea during the first 20 days of April as evidence.
Additional momentum for the stock came from a Bloomberg report stating that Apple has held preliminary talks with Samsung and Intel about producing chips for its devices in the U.S. A potential deal would allow the iPhone maker to diversify its supply chain beyond TSMC.
Shares of South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix rose over 10%. The Kospi index gained 6% and surpassed 7000 points for the first time.
Memory Drives Growth
High-bandwidth memory sales are bolstering Samsung's profitability, but the company still faces stiff competition from SK Hynix.
Samsung is closing the gap in the rapidly growing AI memory segment: in February, the company announced that it was the first in the world to begin mass production of HBM4—sixth-generation chips.
These chips are expected to be a key component of Nvidia's upcoming AI architecture, Vera Rubin, designed for resource-intensive tasks in data centers.
It is worth noting that Samsung is considering a shift to long-term contracts for memory chip supplies.