{"id":2337,"date":"2026-10-08T16:03:44","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T11:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2337"},"modified":"2026-10-08T16:03:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T11:03:44","slug":"samsung-forecasts-record-profit-above-80bn-on-ai-chip-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2337","title":{"rendered":"Samsung forecasts record profit above $80bn on AI chip boom"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Samsung Electronics on Thursday projected its quarterly \u200bprofit would top 100 trillion won, a world first for a technology company, estimating a nearly nine-fold jump in third-quarter \u200cearnings as booming demand for AI chips drove strong memory sales.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The world\u2019s largest memory chipmaker estimated an operating profit of 107.4 trillion won ($80.17 billion) for the July-September period, slightly ahead of an LSEG SmartEstimate of 106.1 trillion won.<\/p>\n

The forecast marks Samsung\u2019s fourth straight quarter of record operating profit, underscoring a deepening global memory chip shortage as AI infrastructure investment \u200boutpaces supply growth, which has driven chip prices up sharply.<\/p>\n

Samsung and Micron expect the imbalance to persist into 2028, although Chinese competition and \u200ba potential slowdown in AI spending pose risks to the longer-term earnings outlook.<\/p>\n

Samsung\u2019s shares moved sideways despite flagging another \u2060record profit, slipping 0.2% in early trade versus a 0.5% fall in the benchmark KOSPI.<\/p>\n

Its share price has slumped more than 25% from a \u200brecord high in June amid concerns about the durability of the AI boom.<\/p>\n

Analysts have also recently trimmed their forecasts due to the sharp appreciation of \u200bthe South Korean currency, which reduces the value of dollar-denominated overseas sales when converted into local currency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe market\u2019s focus has shifted to whether the sharp earnings growth that started a year ago would be sustainable,\u201d market analyst Kim Seok-hwan at Mirae Asset Securities said.<\/p>\n

Analysts expect profit in the fourth quarter to grow 8.2% from the previous quarter, slowing from \u200b20% sequential quarterly growth in the third quarter, with chip price growth abating.<\/p>\n

Market research firm TrendForce expects conventional DRAM contract prices to rise 10% \u200bto 15% in the fourth quarter from the preceding quarter, much slower than a second-quarter surge of roughly 60%.<\/p>\n

The moderation in memory prices is being closely watched by investors \u200cafter a \u2060more than year-long rally that propelled profit margins to record highs for the world\u2019s largest memory producers Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron.<\/p>\n

Third-quarter revenue would likely rise 127% to 195 trillion won from a year earlier, Samsung said.<\/p>\n

The company will release detailed results, including a breakdown of earnings by business division, on October 29.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Bigger-than-expected loss<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Memory chips are expected to account for the bulk of the earnings improvement.<\/p>\n

Prices have soared due to the tight supply of conventional DRAM \u200band NAND chips as well as \u200bgrowing demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM), essential \u2060for processing vast amounts of data for AI applications.<\/p>\n

Douglas Kim of Douglas Research Advisory estimated that Samsung\u2019s HBM bit shipments expanded by close to 50% quarter-over-quarter in the third quarter, with Samsung trying to narrow the gap \u200bwith SK Hynix in the HBM market.<\/p>\n

But the memory chip boom presents a challenge for Samsung\u2019s other businesses, \u200bparticularly its smartphone and \u2060consumer electronics divisions, which face mounting pressure from higher component costs.<\/p>\n

Samsung\u2019s mobile business posted a larger-than-expected loss of more than $1 billion in the third quarter, analysts said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Samsung\u2019s contract chipmaking, or foundry, business is expected to remain loss-making because of the burden of fixed costs and still-low utilisation rates, analysts said.<\/p>\n

However, utilisation is \u2060expected to improve \u200bover the next several quarters, supported by stronger demand for advanced manufacturing processes.<\/p>\n

Samsung has \u200bbeen seeking to narrow the gap with industry leader TSMC in advanced contract chip manufacturing.<\/p>\n

Investors said they would also be closely watching for details of Samsung\u2019s shareholder return policy<\/a> during its earnings \u200bcall later this month.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Samsung Electronics on Thursday projected its quarterly \u200bprofit would top 100 trillion won, a world first for a technology company, estimating a nearly nine-fold jump in third-quarter \u200cearnings as booming demand for AI chips drove strong memory sales. The world\u2019s largest memory chipmaker estimated an operating profit of 107.4 trillion won ($80.17 billion) for the July-September period, slightly ahead of an LSEG SmartEstimate of 106.1 trillion won. The forecast marks Samsung\u2019s fourth straight quarter of record operating profit, underscoring a deepening global memory chip shortage as AI infrastructure investment \u200boutpaces…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}