Samsung guides to a record ₩107.4T (~$80B) Q3 operating profit, up 783% on AI memory demand, above Nvidia’s latest quarter
Confirmed
The takeaway
On Oct 8, 2026 Samsung Electronics’ preliminary guidance put Q3 operating profit at ₩107.4 trillion (about $80B) on ₩195T revenue, up 782.5% and 126.6% year on year: the first quarter above ₩100T for any Korean company.
Status
- Claim
Confirmed
- Our reporting
- High confidence
- Importance
- 3 of 5
- Last verified
- 9 October 2026
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Key facts
- Preliminary Q3 2026: operating profit ₩107.4T (~$80.3B), revenue ₩195T; +782.5% and +126.6% YoY; +20.1% QoQ (Korea Times, Seoul Economic Daily)
- Operating margin ~55.1% (52.2% in Q2); consensus was ₩106.64T profit and ₩200.64T revenue (profit beat, revenue slight miss)
- Memory alone estimated at ~₩110T operating profit; drivers: HBM4 for Nvidia Vera Rubin, server DRAM and NAND shortages, long-term supply agreements
- Device Experience (phones/consumer) expected to post a second straight quarterly operating loss (₩1.1–2.64T) as memory costs raise prices and cut demand
- Seoul Economic Daily: the quarter’s operating profit is roughly 20% above Nvidia’s latest reported quarterly operating profit ($63.7B); nine-month total ₩254T
- Same week: IDC said global PC shipments fell ~20% in Q3 and Nikkei reported Apple cut iPhone 18 Pro orders, both blamed partly on memory costs (Techmeme Oct 9)
What happened
Samsung’s quarterly guidance showed how far the AI build-out has pushed memory prices: a hardware maker posting a larger operating profit than Nvidia, with margins above 50%, while its own phone business lost money because of the same memory costs.
Why it matters
Memory (HBM and server DRAM) is now one of the tightest bottlenecks and biggest profit pools of the AI boom, and its cost is spilling over into consumer electronics (PC shipments down ~20%, iPhone order cuts). Final results are due later in October.
Sources
4 sources from 4 sites. Numbers match the chips in the text.
4 sources: 4 press
Press
- Korea Times: Samsung Electronics estimates $80.3 bil. in Q3 operating profit (Oct 8)koreatimes.co.kr, press
- Seoul Economic Daily: Samsung Electronics Q3 operating profit tops 100 trillion won for first timeen.sedaily.com, press
- CNBC: Samsung forecasts record third-quarter profit of $80 billion as AI boom fuels chip demandcnbc.com, press
- IDC: PC tracker 3Q26 press releaseidc.com, press
Changes
- Filed from 2026-10-08 lead