Samsung Electronics on Thursday estimated its operating profit for the fourth quarter of 2025 will double from a year earlier to stand at 20 trillion won ($13.8 billion), driven by skyrocketing memory chip prices amid surging global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. According to the company’s earnings guidance, Samsung is expected to post 93 trillion won in sales and an operating profit of 13.8 trillion won. This marks sales growing 22.71 percent and operating profit surging 208.2 percent from a year earlier. The figures outpace the brokerages' consensus estimates of 90.6 trillion won in sales and a 17.8 trillion won operating profit. This is the first time that the company's quarterly operating profit to surpass 20 trillion won. As the figures are part of an earnings guidance released ahead of the detailed earnings call, the company did not provide a breakdown of business divisions' performances. However, brokerages widely assume that a recovery in its chipmaking Device Solutions (DS) division lifted overall profitability. Korea Investment & Securities analyst Chae Min-so