SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics ( SSNLF ) reported on Tuesday a more than 10-fold rise in its first-quarter operating profit, as memory chip prices rose steeply from a severe downturn thanks in part to a boom in artificial intelligence.

The world's biggest maker of memory chips and TVs said operating profit rose to 6.6 trillion won ($4.8 billion) in January-March, up from 640 billion won a year earlier.

That was in line with Samsung's own estimate of 6.6 trillion won flagged earlier this month.

First-quarter revenue rose 13% to 71.9 trillion won, the company said.

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