Samsung Electronics reported an operating profit of 107.4tn won for the third quarter, the first time a technology company has topped 100tn won in a single quarter. Revenue rose 127 per cent from a year earlier to a record 195.3tn won, as demand for memory chips used in artificial intelligence data centres outstripped supply.
The chip division earned 106.5tn won, almost all of the group's profit, helped by record memory sales and a sharp increase in sales of HBM4, the high-bandwidth memory used in AI processors. Samsung said it expects AI infrastructure spending to reach a record in 2027, with demand "well above supply".
A cool reception
The shares fell nearly 5 per cent in Seoul on Thursday, after rising almost 3 per cent earlier in the session. Some investors had expected the chip division's profit to approach 110tn won, and Samsung delayed details of its next shareholder-return programme to a board meeting in late January. The company declared a quarterly dividend of 4,601 won a share, about 30tn won in total, and said total returns for 2026 would reach 90tn to 110tn won.
"Expectations for semiconductor earnings had become extremely high," a securities industry official told the Seoul Economic Daily. The Kospi index fell 2.2 per cent, a day after surging more than 6 per cent on record results from SK Hynix, Samsung's rival in memory chips.
Samsung plans capital spending of 84.4tn won this year, 76.8tn won of it in chips.
