Samsung Electronics expects its operating profit for the third quarter to reach a record level of about 107.4 trillion won ($80bn), a significant increase from 12.17 trillion won a year earlier. The South Korean company released its preliminary figures today.
It represents an increase of nearly nine times, or roughly 783 per cent, and sales are also expected to more than double, rising by 127 per cent to around 195 trillion won.
Growth on a quarter-on-quarter basis was maintained. In the second quarter, Samsung achieved an operating profit of 89.49 trillion won on sales of 171.5 trillion won, which represented a rise of about 20% over the previous three months.
Moreover, Samsung stated that demand for AI chips had driven growth in the memory sector, since its memory chips are used in the servers that train and run AI models.
The profit figure beat the LSEG SmartEstimate of 106.1 trillion won, and it is Samsung’s fourth consecutive record quarter.
According to TrendForce, Samsung is also the first South Korean company to make more than 100 trillion won in operating profit in a single quarter.
Memory prices have climbed because supply of standard DRAM and NAND chips is tight. At the same time, demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a stacked memory type used with AI processors, is growing.
Demand for AI infrastructure has grown faster than the supply of memory chips, and the gap is expected to last into 2027.
Douglas Kim of Douglas Research Advisory estimated that Samsung’s HBM shipments grew by close to 50% from the previous quarter.
However, higher memory prices also raise costs for Samsung’s own phones and TVs, which squeezes their margins. Earlier this month, the company raised Galaxy S26 prices by $100 in the US and South Korea, citing memory costs.
Analysts expect the chip division to account for almost all of the profit. Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo estimated that it made about 110 trillion won on its own, TrendForce reported, while Samsung’s phone and appliance unit is expected to post a loss.
Samsung will publish its full results, including a breakdown by division, on October 29.