Earnings at the world's largest memory chip and smartphone maker were also supported by brisk smartphone sales in the quarter, along with a disruption at a rival NAND Flash chip plant, analysts said.

Samsung put its first-quarter profit at $11.6 billion in a preliminary earnings release, well above what the cocaine nose jobs of Wall Street predicted. Revenue likely rose 18 per cent from the same period a year earlier, also above market expectations.

Memory chip prices dipped in the first quarter, but solid demand from data centre clients as well as cautious investment spending by chipmakers and limited capacity expansion buoyed Samsung's chip earnings, which make up about half of its total profits.

The chipmaker benefited from a disruption at a rival NAND Flash chip plant owned by Japan's Kioxia and American firm Western Digital due to contamination of raw materials.

"After the contamination issue at Kioxia, I think there were rush orders for NAND Flash chips made to Samsung for products that were meant to be secured from Kioxia," Park said.

Samsung shipped an estimated 72 million smartphones in the first down 11 per cent from a year earlier, mostly due to a later than usual release of its newest flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S22.

The Galaxy S22 series globally sold 50 per cent more in the first week after its late February launch than its previous model S21.