Samsung Posts Record KRW 107.4 Trillion Profit as HBM4 and DRAM Prices Extend Rally
Samsung Electronics guided to a record third-quarter operating profit of KRW 107.4 trillion, up 782.5% year on year, as HBM4 shipments and surging conventional DRAM prices reshaped the memory market.
Samsung's preliminary third-quarter results showed consolidated operating profit of KRW 107.4 trillion, up 782.5% year on year, on revenue of KRW 195 trillion, up 126.6%. The profit figure edged past the LSEG SmartEstimate of KRW 106.1 trillion and marks the first quarter in which the company's operating profit has crossed the KRW 100 trillion threshold. Third-quarter profit alone already exceeds last year's full-year total of KRW 43.6 trillion, lifting nine-month cumulative profit to KRW 254.13 trillion and putting full-year operating profit on track to comfortably exceed KRW 300 trillion.
The semiconductor business drove the result. The Device Solutions division is estimated to have generated revenue above KRW 100 trillion, with HBM4 sales making a meaningful contribution on demand for next-generation AI accelerators. Samsung's HBM bit shipments jumped nearly 50% quarter on quarter, while conventional DRAM bit shipments are expected to stay largely flat as tight inventories cap volume growth and capacity is redirected toward server products. Prices of conventional DRAM used in smartphones and PCs rose sharply through the quarter as supply tightened.
The boom is not evenly distributed inside the company. The device experience division, which posted its first-ever quarterly operating loss of KRW 800 billion in the second quarter, is estimated to have widened that loss beyond KRW 1 trillion as component costs climbed, and the foundry business is expected to remain loss-making because of fixed-cost burden and still-low utilisation. Both Samsung and Micron expect memory supply to remain tight through 2028, though rising costs, competition from Chinese rivals and potential US semiconductor tariffs could weigh on longer-term profitability.
Contract pricing is still moving higher. Industry research points to fourth-quarter conventional DRAM contract prices rising 10% to 15% quarter on quarter and NAND flash contract prices rising 15% to 20%, with enterprise SSD the only category where growth is accelerating versus the prior quarter as cloud operators expand AI inference capacity. NAND wafer prices have reached levels retail channels increasingly cannot absorb, prompting module makers to buy more cautiously, while PC makers continue to purchase aggressively in anticipation of tighter supply in 2027.