Samsung Guides to ₩107.4 Trillion Quarterly Profit as Analysts Credit AI Memory
Samsung Electronics' preliminary guidance puts July–September 2026 operating profit at about ₩107.4 trillion on sales of about ₩195 trillion, nearly nine times a year earlier. The Korea Times says it is the first time a Korean company has topped ₩100 trillion in a quarter. Samsung gave no division split; analysts estimate memory, including HBM4 for Nvidia's Vera Rubin, earned around ₩110 trillion while the devices unit lost money. Final results are due Oct. 29.
AI memory is now Samsung's profit engine: on analysts' estimates, the memory business alone earned more than the whole group did. Samsung Electronics guided on October 8 (Seoul time) to consolidated operating profit of about ₩107.40 trillion (about US$80.28 billion at The Korea Times' conversion) for July–September 2026, on sales of about ₩195 trillion. A year earlier the quarter made ₩12.17 trillion. That is a nearly ninefold jump.
The Korea Times says it is the first time a Korean company has topped ₩100 trillion in quarterly operating profit.
The guidance
| Sales | Operating profit | |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 2025 | ₩86.06T | ₩12.17T |
| Q2 2026 | ₩171.5T | ₩89.49T |
| Q3 2026 (guidance) | ~₩195T | ~₩107.40T |
Samsung says Korean disclosure rules require a single headline figure, so these are the midpoints of its estimate ranges: ₩194–196 trillion in sales and ₩107.3–107.5 trillion in operating profit. Per The Korea Times, profit beat the ₩106.64 trillion consensus while sales missed the ₩200.64 trillion forecast. Final results, with the division breakdown, are due October 29.
Where the profit came from, per analysts
Samsung's guidance has totals only. Analysts cited by The Korea Times estimate the memory business earned around ₩110 trillion in operating profit, an estimate above the group total, and say HBM4 shipments for Nvidia's Vera Rubin platform are reflected and were the main driver. The Device Experience (DX) division, which makes finished products, is expected to post a second straight quarterly operating loss; Meritz Securities estimates ₩2.64 trillion.
If those estimates hold, the shape is lopsided: high-bandwidth memory and server DRAM for AI accelerators earning more than the group total, with finished devices subtracting from it. Sales also missed consensus even as profit beat it.
Limits
- The memory and DX figures are analyst estimates, not Samsung's numbers, until the October 29 results.
- Guidance is preliminary and unaudited.
- The won–dollar conversion is The Korea Times'.