Samsung Posts a Record 107.4 Trillion Won Q3 Profit as AI Memory Demand Soars

Samsung Electronics expects to report an operating profit of about 107.4 trillion won for the third quarter, the largest quarterly profit in its history and, according to the Korea Herald, the first time a technology company has crossed 100 trillion won in three months. The figures are preliminary, and Samsung published them on Thursday, October 8 (Korea Herald).

The numbers

Samsung guided to consolidated sales of about 195 trillion won for July to September, up roughly 126.6 percent from a year earlier, while operating profit rose about 782.5 percent (Kyunghyang Shinmun). The operating margin was 55.1 percent, above the previous record of 52.2 percent set in the second quarter.

Quarter	Sales (trillion won)	Operating profit (trillion won)
Q3 2025	86.06	12.17
Q2 2026	171.5	89.49
Q3 2026 (preliminary)	About 195	About 107.4

Against the second quarter, profit rose by about a fifth. The Korea Herald says it is Samsung's fourth consecutive quarterly profit record, and that Saudi Aramco is the only other company to have posted more than 100 trillion won in a quarter. Dollar conversions vary with the exchange rate used, from about $74.4 billion in one Herald report to about $80 billion in others (China Daily).

The 107.4 trillion won figure is the midpoint of an internal range of roughly 107.3 to 107.5 trillion won, because Korean disclosure rules do not allow ranges (Pulse 2.0). Samsung gave only headline figures. Divisional results arrive with the full earnings report later in October, and the preliminary numbers are subject to external audit.

Memory did the work

Samsung did not break out its businesses, so the split below comes from analyst estimates reported by the Korea Herald and the Korea Times. They put the memory division at about 110 trillion won in operating profit, more than the whole company earned. Strong demand for high-bandwidth memory used in AI accelerators, along with higher prices for conventional memory, drove the result.

Division	Estimated Q3 operating result
Memory	About 110 trillion won profit
Samsung Display	About 1 trillion won profit
Harman	About 400 billion won profit
Mobile	About 1.5 trillion won loss
TVs and home appliances	700 to 800 billion won loss

Higher component costs hurt the device units, and a stronger won reduced the won value of dollar-denominated chip sales.

Phones paying for the memory boom

South Korean media reports, relayed by GSMArena and 9to5Google, say Samsung's mobile division has begun cutting smartphone production for the fourth quarter by as much as 30 percent. An industry source quoted in those reports says Galaxy phones earn no profit when sold, because rising memory and semiconductor prices have inflated what Samsung pays for parts. Samsung has not confirmed either claim.

The same shortage that makes Samsung's memory arm so profitable raises costs for everyone who builds devices, including Samsung's own phone and TV teams. In the same quarter, IDC blamed supply issues and high prices for a 20.1 percent year-on-year drop in global PC shipments.

How the market reacted

The reaction was cooler than the headline suggests. According to the Korea Herald, Samsung shares closed down 1.86 percent at 263,500 won and the Kospi fell 2.62 percent. Some forecasts had exceeded 120 trillion won before analysts trimmed them as the won strengthened, so 107.4 trillion won arrived below the most optimistic expectations, though it beat a brokerage consensus of 106.64 trillion won (Korea Times). Sales also fell short of the 200 trillion won some analysts had projected.

Looking ahead, the Korea Herald says Meritz Securities raised its 2027 operating profit forecast for Samsung to 632 trillion won from 562 trillion won, and that the memory upcycle is expected to continue into next year. Those are one brokerage's projections.

What it means beyond Samsung

The result shows how concentrated the AI boom has become in a few components. Chips that hold data for AI accelerators are now earning more than entire consumer electronics businesses, and device makers are absorbing the cost. For buyers, that points to higher prices or thinner margins on phones, laptops and TVs while memory stays scarce, though no company has set out a price plan.

What to watch next

Watch for Samsung's full third-quarter report later this month, which should confirm the divisional split and show how much profit came from high-bandwidth memory. Watch whether Samsung confirms the reported smartphone production cut, and for its outlook on memory pricing for the fourth quarter.

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