Samsung posts record Q3 operating profit of 107.4 trillion won on AI chip boom, warns chip shortage will deepen next year
What happened
Samsung Electronics reported record third-quarter operating profit of 107.4 trillion won (about $80 billion), up nearly ninefold from 12.2 trillion won a year earlier, driven by booming demand for AI memory chips. Revenue climbed about 127% to roughly 195 trillion won, and Samsung said it is the first global technology company to post quarterly operating profit above 100 trillion won. The semiconductor division generated 106.5 trillion won in operating profit — about 99% of group profit — on a sharp ramp in sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM4) and server storage orders. Net profit of about 75 trillion won missed the roughly 84 trillion won consensus estimate. Samsung also declared a third-quarter dividend of 30 trillion won (4,601 won per share) and said memory demand will keep expanding in Q4 and the chip supply shortage will deepen next year.
Why it matters & what’s next are part of Pro, along with the audio summary.
Start your free 14-day trialWho’s affected
- Samsung Electronics (memory/HBM supplier to Nvidia and other AI hyperscalers)
- SK Hynix (peer memory maker, read-through from Samsung's shortage outlook)
- Micron (MU, U.S. memory peer)
- Nvidia (NVDA) and other AI hardware names (demand signal for AI infrastructure)
- Apple (AAPL, exposed via higher memory costs squeezing device margins, as seen in Samsung's own mobile loss)
Sources