SEOUL, Jan 29 (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics said its operating profit more than tripled to a record high in the fourth quarter and forecast strong chip demand ahead, as the race to build artificial intelligence strains chip supply and boosts prices. The results underscore the strong pricing power of the world's top memory chipmaker whose profit growth is expected to accelerate this year. "The ongoing AI boom is expected to continue driving favorable market conditions across the industry" in the first quarter of 2026, Samsung said in a statement. The South Korean company posted 20 trillion won ($13.98 billion) in operating profit for the October to December period, in line with its estimate of 20 trillion won and up from 6.49 trillion won a year earlier. It reported revenue of 93.8 trillion won in the quarter, up 24% from a year earlier. Operating profit at Samsung's chip business, its main cash cow, surged 470% to a record high 16.4 trillion won in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, while profit at its mobile phone business, squeezed by surging chip prices, declined to 1.9 trillion won. Samsung co-CEO TM Roh described the acute chip shortage as "unprecedented" in an interview with Reuters, adding that he did not rule out raising prices. ($1 = 1,430.3000 won) (Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin, Heekyong Yang and Joyce Lee; Editing by Jamie Freed and Sonali Paul)
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