Operating profit at the world’s largest maker of memory chips, smartphones and televisions was estimated at Won6.5tn ($4.5bn) in preliminary figures for its October-December quarter, missing the Won7.7tn forecast by analysts according to LSEG SmartEstimate.

Samsung’s chip division is struggling to regain its pandemic-era heights and risks slipping further behind SK Hynix, which in October posted record profit. Keeping up requires high research and development and capacity expansion costs,

Samsung Electronics released on Wednesday a fourth-quarter operating profit estimate that missed analyst estimates by a large margin, as it lagged behind rival SK Hynix in supplying high-end chips to Nvidia.