SEOUL, April 30 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's tech giant Samsung Electronics posted its record-high operating profit in the first quarter, thanks to strong semiconductor demand, the company said Thursday.

Samsung's operating profit surged 756.1 percent from a year earlier to reach an all-time high of 57.23 trillion won (38.5 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-March quarter.

Its revenue spiked 69.2 percent to a new high of 133.87 trillion won (90.1 billion dollars), and the net income soared 474.3 percent to 47.23 trillion won (31.8 billion dollars).

The record earnings were attributed to surging demand for memory chips and higher chip prices.

Samsung's chip-making business recorded an operating profit of 53.7 trillion won (36.1 billion dollars) with revenue of 81.7 trillion won (54.9 billion dollars) in the quarter ending March 31.

Samsung said that it surpassed its quarterly sales record by addressing high-value-added artificial intelligence (AI) demand despite limited supply availability, with industry-wide memory price increases also a contributing factor.

The company expected chip demand to remain strong in the second quarter amid the AI infrastructure expansion, planning to deliver its first HBM4E samples to solidify technical leadership.

The display panel unit achieved an operating profit of 0.4 trillion won (269 million dollars) on revenue of 6.7 trillion won (4.5 billion dollars) in the January-March quarter.

Earnings for small and medium displays declined due to seasonal effects, but those for large displays maintained stable sales on robust demand for OLED gaming monitors.

The mobile phone and networks unit generated an operating profit of 2.8 trillion won (1.9 billion dollars) on revenue of 38.1 trillion won (25.6 billion dollars).

Mobile phone sales increased as a result of the premium product mix in the first quarter, but the company expected the phone sales to decline in the second quarter amid diminishing launch effects of new models.

The TV and home appliance division posted an operating profit of 0.2 trillion won (134.5 million dollars) on revenue of 14.3 trillion won (9.6 billion dollars). ■