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Samsung Q3 2026: operating profit KRW 107.4 trillion on revenue of KRW 195.3 trillion, led by memory

Samsung Electronics posted record third-quarter results on 29 October: the chip division earned KRW 106.5 trillion while phones, TVs and appliances lost money.

audiotale.net team

· 8 min read

Written by AI from the sources linked below. How we use AI

On this page
  1. Key points
  2. What happened
  3. Background
  4. The numbers
  5. What it means
  6. What we don't know yet
  7. What to watch next
  8. Sources

Samsung Electronics reported third-quarter 2026 revenue of KRW 195.3 trillion and operating profit of KRW 107.4 trillion on 29 October, a record for the company and, in its own words, the first time a tech company has passed KRW 100 trillion in quarterly operating profit. Almost all of it came from one place: the chip division, where memory prices and the ramp of HBM4 high-bandwidth memory for AI servers lifted profit while most of the consumer businesses lost money. The same quarter shows how large the AI memory cycle has become, and how much Samsung is now spending to stay in it.

Key points

  • Samsung's Q3 2026 consolidated revenue was KRW 195.3 trillion (up 14% on the previous quarter) and operating profit KRW 107.4 trillion, according to Samsung's results release of 29 October 2026.
  • The Device Solutions (chip) division earned KRW 106.5 trillion of operating profit on KRW 147.1 trillion of revenue; the Device eXperience (devices) division lost KRW 0.8 trillion.
  • Capital spending was KRW 29 trillion in the quarter and is expected to reach about KRW 84.4 trillion for 2026.
  • Samsung says it will return an estimated KRW 90 to 110 trillion to shareholders for 2026, including a Q3 dividend of KRW 4,601 per share (KRW 30 trillion in total).
  • The headline numbers were pre-announced on 8 October; the full release adds the division detail.

What happened

Samsung published its full third-quarter results on 29 October 2026 for the quarter ended 30 September. Consolidated revenue was KRW 195.3 trillion, which Samsung calls another all-time quarterly high and 14% more than the second quarter. Operating profit was KRW 107.4 trillion. Dividing one by the other gives an operating margin of about 55%, our calculation, not a figure Samsung states.

On 8 October the company had already filed preliminary figures: operating profit of about KRW 107.4 trillion, up 782.5% from a year earlier, and revenue of about KRW 195 trillion, up 126.6%, according to the Korea Times and TrendForce. The Korea Times reported that analysts had expected operating profit of KRW 106.64 trillion, so profit came in slightly above, and revenue of KRW 200.64 trillion, so sales came in slightly below. The final release did not move the headline numbers.

The split between divisions is where the story is. Samsung's release gives these third-quarter figures:

  • Device Solutions (DS, chips): revenue KRW 147.1 trillion, operating profit KRW 106.5 trillion. That is a margin of about 72% on our arithmetic. DS revenue rose 15% on the quarter.
  • Samsung Display (SDC): revenue KRW 8.0 trillion, operating profit KRW 1.1 trillion.
  • Mobile (MX) and Networks: combined revenue KRW 37.7 trillion, operating loss KRW 0.6 trillion.
  • TV (VD) and appliances (DA): combined revenue KRW 13.9 trillion, operating loss KRW 0.2 trillion.
  • Device eXperience (DX) division as a whole: revenue up 8% on the quarter and an operating loss of KRW 0.8 trillion.

Within DS, Samsung says its Memory business set an all-time high for quarterly revenue and operating profit. It says strong server demand lifted market prices across all applications, that it "significantly scaled up" HBM4 sales, and that it is also meeting rising demand for server SSDs. The foundry business, which analysts had expected to stay loss-making, reported what Samsung calls a notable improvement in revenue and earnings, helped by HBM base-die sales (the logic chip that sits under an HBM memory stack), advanced-node sales and 2nm orders from high-performance-computing customers including large cloud operators. Samsung gave no foundry profit figure.

Harman, Samsung's automotive and audio unit, also improved, but Samsung notes that its result was helped by non-recurring US tariff refunds.

Background

A year ago this looked like a different company. According to the figures in an analysis by XenoSpectrum, which cites Samsung's earlier announcements, the third quarter of 2025 brought revenue of KRW 86.06 trillion and operating profit of KRW 12.17 trillion. The second quarter of 2026 brought KRW 171.5 trillion and KRW 89.49 trillion. Those are secondary-source numbers we could not match against the earlier Samsung releases, but they agree with the growth rates in the 8 October filing (revenue +126.6%, operating profit +782.5%) and with Samsung's own statement that third-quarter revenue rose 14% from the second.

Samsung Electronics operating profitKRW trillion
Samsung Electronics operating profit (KRW trillion)
KRW trillion
Q3 202512.17
Q2 202689.49
Q3 2026107.4

Source: Samsung Electronics results (Q3 2026); Q3 2025 and Q2 2026 per XenoSpectrum

The driver is the AI build-out. Training and serving large models needs high-bandwidth memory stacked next to the accelerator, and that capacity competes for the same wafers as ordinary server DRAM. With cloud operators buying aggressively, memory makers have been able to raise prices across the board. Analysts quoted by the Korea Times said DRAM prices kept rising at double-digit rates in the quarter, though more slowly than in the one before, and that long-term supply agreements are growing. TrendForce, citing Reuters, reported that Samsung and Micron both expect supply to remain tight through 2028; we have not seen that statement in either company's own filings, so treat it as reported.

HBM4 is the newest piece. Analysts cited by the Korea Times believe Samsung's HBM4 sales for Nvidia's Vera Rubin platform were fully reflected in this quarter, and TrendForce, again citing Reuters, reported that Samsung's HBM bit shipments rose nearly 50% on the quarter. Samsung itself does not disclose HBM revenue or profit separately, so these are outside estimates.

The numbers

Samsung is not the only memory maker reporting records. SK hynix, its closest rival in HBM, reported third-quarter revenue of KRW 104.6 trillion and operating profit of KRW 83.3 trillion, which we covered in our SK hynix results report. SK hynix is a memory company only, so it earns about 80% on revenue (our arithmetic), above Samsung's group margin of 55% but below the margin of Samsung's chip division at 72%. In absolute terms Samsung's chip division alone earned more operating profit than SK hynix did.

Q3 2026 operating profitKRW trillion
Q3 2026 operating profit (KRW trillion)
KRW trillion
Samsung Electronics (group)107.4
Samsung DS (chips)106.5
SK hynix83.3

Source: Samsung Electronics and SK hynix Q3 2026 results

The investment side is just as striking. Samsung's capital spending in the quarter was KRW 29 trillion, KRW 12.2 trillion more than in the second quarter and KRW 19.8 trillion more than a year earlier. Of that, KRW 27.2 trillion went to the DS division and KRW 1.1 trillion to Samsung Display. For January to September the total is KRW 56.9 trillion, and the full-year forecast is about KRW 84.4 trillion, of which KRW 76.8 trillion is for DS. Samsung says the money goes into new fabs and infrastructure to meet AI and high-performance-computing demand and to prepare for the medium to long term. It also expects its new fab in Taylor, Texas, to begin operating in 2027.

For shareholders, the third-quarter dividend is KRW 4,601 per common share and the same per preferred share, KRW 30 trillion in total. Samsung estimates total 2026 shareholder returns of KRW 90 to 110 trillion, of which KRW 35 trillion is already planned or completed, leaving KRW 55 to 75 trillion that will include what it calls a substantial share buyback and cancellation programme plus dividends. The final amount and plan are due at a board meeting in late January 2027. TrendForce put Samsung's nine-month operating profit at KRW 254.13 trillion, against KRW 43.6 trillion for all of 2025, which means this one quarter exceeded last year's full total.

What it means

For the AI supply chain. Memory has moved from a cyclical afterthought to a gating component. Samsung says AI infrastructure investment will reach "a historic level" in 2027 and that AI-driven demand will exceed industry supply by a wider margin than in 2026. If that holds, buyers of accelerators and servers keep paying more for memory, and device makers that also need that memory, Samsung's own phone and TV units included, absorb the cost.

For Samsung's consumer businesses. The phone, TV and appliance lines are being squeezed from two sides: higher costs, including for the memory Samsung itself makes, and weaker demand. Samsung attributes the MX profit decline from last year to cost pressures, the TV business to higher costs, and the appliance business to raw-material and logistics costs. Its 2027 outlook for TVs is flat or slightly lower demand. Before the release, Korean brokers had estimated the DX division loss at between KRW 1.1 trillion and KRW 2.64 trillion; the reported KRW 0.8 trillion was smaller than all three estimates quoted by the Korea Times.

For the memory race. SK hynix is Samsung's closest rival in HBM. Samsung's statements this quarter, "industry-leading product competitiveness" for HBM4 and a plan to secure multi-year contracts, show it is positioning itself as a leader. The evidence for that is still analyst estimates and Samsung's own words, not disclosed HBM revenue.

What we don't know yet

  • How much of the KRW 106.5 trillion DS profit comes from HBM as opposed to conventional DRAM and NAND. Samsung does not say, and the roughly KRW 110 trillion memory profit figure in the Korea Times is an analyst estimate that exceeds the DS total, so it should be read as a rough indication only.
  • The foundry's profit or loss. Samsung describes an improvement but gives no number.
  • How long prices keep rising. Samsung expects strong demand into 2027, while the Korea Times reports analysts seeing a slowing rate of price increases.
  • Whether the tariff refund in Harman's result and the other one-offs affect group profit by a material amount. Samsung does not quantify them.

What to watch next

  • Nvidia's third-quarter report, for which the company has set a conference call, for demand signals on accelerators that use HBM4.
  • Samsung's January 2027 board meeting, where the final 2026 shareholder return and the buyback size are due.
  • The fourth-quarter guidance: Samsung expects double-digit foundry revenue growth and continued memory strength, while Samsung Display expects limited earnings improvement.
  • Whether the 2027 capital spending plan, not yet given, rises beyond KRW 84.4 trillion.

Sources

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audiotale.net team

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