Samsung Electronics has estimated its third-quarter operating profit at a record 107.4 trillion won, about $80 billion, an increase of 782.5 per cent on a year earlier. The preliminary figure, published on 8 October, makes the South Korean group the first technology company anywhere to clear 100 trillion won in one quarter. Saudi Aramco is the only other company to have reached that level.
Revenue also set a record at 195 trillion won, up 126.6 per cent year on year, and the quarter was Samsung’s fourth in a row of record profit. For scale, Nvidia reported operating profit of $63.7 billion for its fiscal second quarter, which ended in July. Memory did almost all the work. Demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in AI computing stayed strong, and securities industry estimates put third-quarter price rises at 15 per cent for DRAM and 18 per cent for NAND as supply tightened.
Samsung did not split the result by division, but analysts estimate the memory business earned about 110 trillion won, enough to cover losses in smartphones, consumer electronics and foundry. The same component inflation that lifted chip margins squeezed the device side. Analysts think the mobile division lost about 1.5 trillion won after a 700 billion won loss in the second quarter, while TVs and home appliances are put at a combined loss of 700 billion to 800 billion won. Samsung Display probably added about 1 trillion won and Harman about 400 billion won. A stronger won cut the value of dollar chip sales, and some forecasts above 120 trillion won were trimmed as the currency rose.
The share price did not follow the headline. Samsung closed 1.86 per cent lower at 263,500 won on the day, and the benchmark Kospi fell 2.62 per cent to 6,625.93. Brokers still expect the memory cycle to run into next year because HBM supply is tight and chipmakers are moving capacity away from conventional DRAM. Meritz Securities raised its 2027 operating profit forecast for Samsung to 632 trillion won from 562 trillion won.
Samsung is adding HBM lines in Pyeongtaek, preparing longer-term sites in Yongin and Gwangju and expanding advanced foundry capacity in Texas. It has also finalised an uncapped special bonus for chip staff, funded by 10.5 per cent of the division’s previous-year operating profit and paid after tax entirely in Samsung shares between late March and early April, subject to shareholder approval. Forty per cent of the pool goes to the whole semiconductor workforce and 60 per cent is allocated by business-unit performance. Detailed third-quarter results are due later this month.
