Industry Chips

Samsung's Record ₩107.4 Trillion Quarter Came Almost Entirely From Chips, and Its Shares Fell Anyway

Samsung Electronics confirmed third-quarter operating profit of ₩107.4 trillion on record revenue of ₩195.3 trillion on Oct. 29. Its chip division earned ₩106.5 trillion of that profit while the phone-and-appliance business lost ₩0.8 trillion. Samsung says it significantly scaled up HBM4 sales and expects AI demand to far exceed industry supply in 2027. Shares closed down 4.13%, with profit and revenue slightly under LSEG estimates.

Times of AI Desk Oct 29, 2026 4 min read Seoul View as Markdown

Samsung's record quarter is a chip company's quarter with a consumer-electronics business attached. Of ₩107.4 trillion in operating profit for July to September, the Device Solutions division, which makes memory and logic chips, earned ₩106.5 trillion, Samsung said on October 29. The Device eXperience division, which makes Galaxy phones, TVs and appliances, posted an operating loss of ₩0.8 trillion.

The quarter#

Samsung reported revenue of ₩195.3 trillion, a quarterly record and 14% more than in the second quarter. Operating profit matched the preliminary guidance it gave on October 8. Device Solutions revenue was ₩147.1 trillion, and Samsung says its memory business set a record after it "significantly scaled up sales of HBM4", the high-bandwidth memory used in AI accelerators. The mobile and networks business had revenue of ₩37.7 trillion and an operating loss of ₩0.6 trillion, and Samsung Display earned ₩1.1 trillion on ₩8.0 trillion of revenue.

The chip division's operating margin works out to about 72%. That is below the 80% margin SK Hynix reported for its own quarter, when it passed ₩100 trillion in revenue for the first time, but Samsung's chip division is larger and also includes its foundry and system-chip businesses.

The market reaction#

Samsung shares closed down 4.13%, CNBC reports. CNBC says operating profit came in slightly below the LSEG SmartEstimate of ₩107.66 trillion and revenue below the ₩195.79 trillion estimate, though operating profit was up 783% from a year earlier. Reuters reports the stock fell as much as 6.2% during the day and that chip operating profit was below an LSEG estimate of ₩107.3 trillion.

Reuters reports Samsung said its HBM is sold out for next year and that it expects the market to stay tight through 2028. Samsung has long-term contracts with 10 customers and is in talks with 10 more, and aims to cover 60% to 70% of its capacity with such contracts by 2030, according to Reuters. "Anyone holding the stock today is really holding a memory maker with a phone business attached," eToro analyst Josh Gilbert told CNBC.

Capital and returns#

Samsung spent ₩29 trillion on capital expenditure in the quarter and expects about ₩84.4 trillion for 2026, ₩76.8 trillion of it for chips. It declared a third-quarter dividend of ₩4,601 a share, about ₩30 trillion in total. It says total shareholder returns for 2026 will be ₩90 trillion to ₩110 trillion, with the remaining ₩55 trillion to ₩75 trillion to be finalised in late January 2027. Samsung says it expects AI-driven demand in 2027 to far exceed industry supply.

Limits#

Samsung does not disclose HBM revenue, volumes or customer names.
The analyst estimates come from LSEG via CNBC and Reuters and differ slightly between the two outlets.
The "sold out" description and the contract figures are Reuters's account of Samsung's earnings call; they do not appear in Samsung's press release.
The 72% chip margin is a Times of AI calculation from Samsung's division figures.

The quarter#

The market reaction#

Capital and returns#

Limits#

Sources#

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