Samsung Q3 Operating Profit Hits KRW 107.4T on Record Memory Sales

Samsung Electronics reported third-quarter (Q3) operating profit of KRW 107.4 trillion on revenue of KRW 195.3 trillion on Oct. 29, the first time a tech company has passed KRW 100 trillion in a quarter, the company said.

Revenue rose 14% from the second quarter to an all-time quarterly high, according to Samsung's results release. CNBC described the profit as in line with estimates. The Device Solutions (DS) division, which holds the chip businesses, posted KRW 147.1 trillion in revenue and KRW 106.5 trillion in operating profit, so it supplied nearly all of the group's profit.

The Device eXperience (DX) division booked an operating loss of KRW 0.8 trillion. Samsung said its mobile and networks businesses lost KRW 0.6 trillion and its TV and appliance businesses lost KRW 0.2 trillion, a gap that shows how far the group's earnings now depend on AI memory. Voltgrid News previewed the report in its AI hardware earnings week-ahead.

Memory Record and HBM4 Sales

Samsung said its Memory Business set a record for both quarterly revenue and operating profit, helped by a product mix weighted toward AI products "amid capacity constraints" and by higher market prices across all applications. It said it "significantly scaled up" sales of HBM4, its fourth-generation high-bandwidth memory, and is meeting growing demand for server SSDs. It did not give an HBM revenue figure in the release.

That leaves the Q3 HBM number as an outside estimate. Bernstein put Samsung's July-September HBM revenue at $8.7 billion, derived from export data, and Samsung's own filing neither confirms nor contradicts it. SK hynix reported a day earlier.

Foundry 2nm Orders and the 2027 Memory Outlook

The Foundry Business improved on HBM base-die sales and advanced-node sales, and Samsung cited continued order wins centered on 2nm high-performance computing customers, including major hyperscalers. For the fourth quarter it expects double-digit revenue growth and a ramp of 4nm NPUs. In 2027 it expects its new Taylor, Texas fab to begin operating, which fits the tool orders reported for Taylor Fab 1.

For 2027, the Memory Business expects AI infrastructure capital expenditure to reach a historic level and AI-driven demand to "far exceed" industry supply compared with 2026. It plans to lock in multi-year contracts and to raise HBM, server DRAM and SSD sales. The release does not name HBM4E or give a date for it.

The supply message matters for power and data-center planning: accelerator and server volumes are gated by memory, and Samsung is telling customers that gate stays tight through 2027.

Third-quarter capital expenditure was KRW 29 trillion, up KRW 12.2 trillion from the second quarter, with KRW 27.2 trillion in the DS division. Samsung expects full-year 2026 capex of about KRW 84.4 trillion, including KRW 76.8 trillion for DS, aimed at new fabs and infrastructure for AI and high-performance computing demand. That builds on the fab restarts Voltgrid covered earlier this month.

The third-quarter dividend is KRW 4,601 per common and preferred share, about KRW 30 trillion in total. Samsung estimates total 2026 shareholder returns of KRW 90 trillion to KRW 110 trillion, with a large buyback to come, and will set final plans at a board meeting in late January 2027.

What Samsung Has Not Confirmed on HBM

Samsung's release gives no HBM-specific revenue, no HBM4 share of HBM sales, no HBM4E timing and no Taylor ramp figures. Third-party summaries of the earnings call circulating on Oct. 29 carry such numbers, but Voltgrid has not verified them against an official transcript, and they are left out here. The wording on 2027 supply is Samsung's own outlook, not a contracted volume.