Samsung Electronics said its quarterly profit more than tripled to a record high after global demand for AI servers sharply lifted memory chip prices.

South Korea¡¯s largest company reported a preliminary operating profit of 20 trillion won ($13.8 billion) in the three months through December, up 208% and beating the average analyst estimate. Revenue rose 23% to 93 trillion won, also a record. Its shares rose as much as 2.5% Thursday morning in Seoul, extending a rally that¡¯s lifted the stock 20% since the start of the year. Rival SK Hynix¡¯s shares rose 6.2%.

Memory makers like Samsung are diverting production away from everyday tech to build more lucrative high-end chips for AI giants like Nvidia amid a global rush to rollout massive data centers. That¡¯s created a severe shortage in standard memory for laptops and servers, causing prices for both DRAM and NAND to surge.