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

Times of AI Desk · 2026-10-29 · Industry

[https://timesof.ai/2026/10/samsung-q3-2026-record-107t-won-operating-profit-hbm4](https://timesof.ai/2026/10/samsung-q3-2026-record-107t-won-operating-profit-hbm4)

> 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.

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](https://timesof.ai/2026/10/samsung-q3-2026-guidance-107-trillion-won-hbm4). 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](https://timesof.ai/2026/10/sk-hynix-q3-record-revenue-100t-won-shareholder-returns), 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.

## Sources

- [Samsung Newsroom: Samsung Electronics Announces Third Quarter 2026 Results (October 29, 2026)](https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-electronics-announces-third-quarter-2026-results)
- [Samsung Electronics: 3Q 2026 earnings conference presentation (October 29, 2026)](https://images.samsung.com/is/content/samsung/assets/global/ir/docs/2026_3Q_conference_eng.pdf)
- [CNBC: Samsung Electronics third-quarter earnings (October 29, 2026)](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/29/samsung-electronics-third-quarter-earnings.html)
- [Reuters via Investing.com: Samsung posts record profit in Q3 on AI chip boom (October 29, 2026)](https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/samsung-posts-record-profit-in-q3-on-ai-chip-boom-4981289)