Hyundai Motor Securities predicts Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor (DS) division to strengthen structurally amid soaring memory chip prices. The firm cites increasing demand for enterprise solid-state drives (SSDs) and emerging synergies between memory and foundry operations as indicators of a promising outlook for next year’s performance.
On Tuesday, Noh Geun-chang, research director at Hyundai Motor Securities, noted, “As AI agent demand surges and inference services spread, there is a parallel rise in retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) needs for improved AI accuracy. This is driving a significant uptick in enterprise SSD demand.”
He elaborated, “Server DRAM prices have jumped 50% quarter-over-quarter in Q4 due to general data center upgrades. We anticipate further increases of about 20% in Q1 and around 10% in Q2 next year. These price hikes for key products are expected to substantially boost performance.”
High-bandwidth memory (HBM) supply is also expected to increase next year, with an expanded role for the foundry division.
Noh added, “HBM3E (5th gen) supply is ramping up, primarily for North American cloud service providers’ custom accelerators and Tier 1 accelerator firms. HBM4 (6th gen) will incorporate proprietary base die technology, further enhancing synergy with the foundry division.” He also pointed out, “Improved yields in 10nm 1c DRAM (6th gen) are likely to reinforce Samsung’s DRAM market position.”
Looking ahead, Noh forecasts Samsung’s consolidated revenue and operating profit for next year to reach 406 trillion KRW (approximately 276.19 billion USD) and 85.1 trillion KRW (approximately 57.89 billion USD), respectively. These figures represent year-over-year increases of 20.9% and 112.6%, driven by rising commodity memory chip prices, improved foundry utilization reducing losses, and enhanced performance from Samsung Display following the launch of foldable iPhones.
