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Samsung guides Q3 operating profit to 107.4 trillion won on AI memory

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Samsung Electronics told investors on October 8, 2026, to expect a third-quarter operating profit of 107.4 trillion won, a figure Reuters converted to about $80.17 billion and Yonhap to about $79.8 billion. If the preliminary number holds, it would be the company's fourth straight record quarter and the first time a South Korean company has cleared 100 trillion won in quarterly operating profit.

What Happened

Samsung's earnings guidance, reported by Yonhap and Reuters, puts July–September operating profit at 107.4 trillion won, up 782.5% from a year earlier. Third-quarter revenue is expected at 195 trillion won, up 126.6% year over year, Yonhap said. Reuters described the revenue increase as about 127%. Net profit was not included in the guidance.

The operating-profit estimate was slightly ahead of an LSEG SmartEstimate of 106.1 trillion won, Reuters reported, and 1.6% above the Yonhap Infomax consensus. Samsung will publish detailed results, including a breakdown by business, on October 29, Reuters said.

These figures are preliminary guidance, not audited final earnings.

Details

Dividing the two guidance numbers implies an operating margin near 55%. Yonhap estimated the margin at 55.1% and called it the highest in Samsung's history. That is a calculation from the guidance, not a margin Samsung itself highlighted in the reports reviewed here.

Samsung did not publish a division split with the guidance. Yonhap said the device-solutions unit, which includes semiconductors, is believed to have accounted for a dominant share, and attributed the result to AI infrastructure spending, a tight chip supply, and elevated memory prices. Those are characterizations from the news report and industry observers, not line items in the guidance.

Yonhap also reported analyst estimates that non-memory chip businesses, including system LSI and foundry, remained in the red, with combined operating losses around 1 trillion won, and that the device-experience division — phones, networks, displays, and appliances — may have lost money for a second straight quarter as component costs rose. Reuters separately noted that rising chip costs are squeezing smartphone margins. Those division figures are estimates, not Samsung disclosures.

On product mix, Yonhap said Samsung has begun mass production and shipments of sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory, HBM4, and that the product is expected to contribute more meaningfully next year. TechPulse has not independently confirmed shipment volumes.

Why It Matters

Memory is the other half of the AI hardware bill, next to the logic chips TSMC fabricates. A near nine-fold jump in Samsung's quarterly operating profit, on company guidance, is the clearest public signal this week that high-bandwidth and server memory pricing is still supporting earnings.

It is also a reminder that the boom is uneven inside the same company. If analyst estimates are right, foundry and handset margins are not sharing the memory windfall. Final confirmation has to wait for the October 29 report.

Context

Reuters said the forecast would be Samsung's fourth consecutive quarter of record operating profit, and described it as the first time a technology company has projected quarterly profit above 100 trillion won. Yonhap compared the scale with Saudi Aramco's $86.5 billion operating profit in the second quarter of 2022, a resource-company result rather than a tech one. Comparisons with Nvidia, Apple, and others in secondary write-ups depend on which quarter and which exchange rate is used, so they should be treated as rough, not as Samsung statements.

The same day, TSMC reported September revenue of NT$511.86 billion, up 54.6% year over year. Together the two prints describe an AI supply chain that was still expanding through the end of the third quarter. They do not, by themselves, say how long elevated memory prices last.

Reuters quoted Mirae Asset Securities analyst Kim Seok-hwan saying the market's focus has shifted to whether the sharp earnings growth that started a year ago is sustainable. Reuters also reported that analysts expect fourth-quarter profit to rise about 8.2% from the third quarter, a slower sequential pace, and that chipmakers expect the shortage to persist into 2028. Those are analyst and industry views, not Samsung guidance. Yonhap said some observers expect Samsung's operating profit next year to reach around 550 trillion won. That is a forecast, not a company target.

Impact

For cloud buyers, a 55% implied margin at the largest memory supplier is evidence that AI server builds are still paying scarcity prices. For phone makers, including Samsung's own handset unit, the same prices are a cost problem. Reuters flagged that squeeze explicitly.

For investors, the guidance beat is small relative to the year-over-year jump — 107.4 trillion won versus a 106.1 trillion won SmartEstimate — so the news is the level of profit, not a large surprise versus the Street.

What Next

Samsung's full third-quarter report is scheduled for October 29. That is when a division split, HBM contribution, and any comment on 2027 supply should become checkable. Until then, claims about foundry losses, handset losses, and next year's 550 trillion won figure remain outside the company's own guidance.

TechPulse Takeaway

Samsung's October 8 guidance is a confirmed preliminary print: 107.4 trillion won of operating profit and 195 trillion won of revenue, both company figures reported by Reuters and Yonhap. The AI-memory explanation is the consensus reading, not a line in the guidance. Division losses and 2027 profit targets are analyst estimates and should stay labeled that way until the October 29 report.

Sources

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