Samsung Electronics made KRW 107.4 trillion in operating profit in the third quarter, which it says makes it the world’s first tech company to top KRW 100 trillion in a single quarter, the company said on 29 October. Revenue rose 14% from the previous quarter to KRW 195.3 trillion, another record.
Almost all of that profit came from chips. The Device Solutions division, which includes memory, earned KRW 106.5 trillion of the total, while the phone, TV and appliance businesses lost money between them. The results follow SK hynix’s record quarter a day earlier and fill in the detail behind the preliminary figures Samsung published earlier this month.
Memory carried the quarter
Samsung’s earnings presentation shows how sharply the mix has changed in a year. Group revenue was up 127% on the third quarter of 2025, and operating profit was up 783%. The operating margin was 55.0%. Net profit was KRW 75.1 trillion and earnings per common share were KRW 11,462.
Memory revenue alone was KRW 140.7 trillion, against KRW 26.7 trillion a year earlier. The Device Solutions division made KRW 7.0 trillion in operating profit in the same quarter of 2025. Samsung said strong server demand pushed up prices “across all applications” and that the memory business “significantly scaled up sales of HBM4”, the high-bandwidth memory used alongside AI processors. It did not give HBM4 volumes.
Its foundry business, which makes chips for other companies, also improved, helped by sales of HBM base dies and “continued order wins centered on 2nm HPC customers, including major hyperscalers”. Samsung did not name those customers. It expects its new fab in Taylor, Texas, to begin operating in 2027.
Phones and TVs lost money
The Device eXperience division had revenue of KRW 52.1 trillion and an operating loss of KRW 0.8 trillion. Mobile and networks lost KRW 0.6 trillion on revenue of KRW 37.7 trillion, despite new foldable launches; Samsung blamed cost pressures for the fall from a year ago. TVs and appliances lost KRW 0.2 trillion on revenue of KRW 13.9 trillion, citing higher raw material and logistics costs.
Samsung Display made KRW 1.1 trillion on KRW 8.0 trillion in revenue. Harman made KRW 0.6 trillion, helped by what Samsung called “non-recurring U.S. tariff refunds”.
Shareholder returns and capex
Samsung declared a third-quarter dividend of KRW 4,601 per share, about KRW 30 trillion in total. It estimates total shareholder returns for 2026 at KRW 90-110 trillion and said KRW 55-75 trillion of that remains to be returned, including “a substantial share repurchase and cancellation program”. The board will settle the final figure in late January 2027.
Capital spending was KRW 29 trillion in the quarter, KRW 27.2 trillion of it on chips. Samsung expects about KRW 84.4 trillion for 2026, including KRW 76.8 trillion for the chip division.
Shortage pricing, not phones, sets the outlook
The outlook depends on memory prices staying high, and Samsung expects they will. For 2027 it says “increasing AI-driven demand will far exceed the industry supply in comparison with 2026”, and it plans to lock in multi-year contracts. That fits what equipment makers are saying: ASML has warned its own planned supply for 2027 and 2028 will not fully meet demand.
The weakness is that one business now carries the group. A company whose phone division lost money in a quarter with new foldables is unusually exposed to a turn in the memory cycle. If new memory capacity arrives faster than AI demand grows, prices could fall sharply, as they have in past cycles. Samsung’s own capex plan of KRW 76.8 trillion for chips this year is part of that new capacity.
There are also competitive questions. Nvidia’s push for HBM base dies made at TSMC, which TSN covered in its NVHBM report, could shift some of the foundry work Samsung counts on. And the “major hyperscalers” behind its 2nm wins remain unnamed, so their scale is unknown.
The January board meeting will show how much of this quarter’s cash Samsung chooses to hand back rather than spend.
Sources
- Samsung Global Newsroom, “Samsung Electronics Announces Third Quarter 2026 Results”, 29 October 2026
- Samsung Electronics, Q3 2026 earnings conference presentation (PDF)
- @Samsung, post on X, 29 October 2026
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