About 80 billion dollars in one quarter: Samsung earns almost all of it from chips
Operating profit rose to 107.4 trillion won – almost nine times the level a year ago. The mobile unit slipped into the red due to costly memory chips, and the shares fell sharply.
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Samsung Electronics posted record profit in the third quarter. Operating profit for July to September rose to 107.4 trillion won, about 80 billion dollars, from 12.2 trillion won a year earlier, in line with the company's own estimate earlier this month. Revenue climbed 127 per cent to 195.25 trillion won, according to SiliconANGLE. The driver is huge demand for memory chips for data centres.
Almost all of the profit came from the semiconductor division, which earned 106.5 trillion won in operating profit – 15 times the year-earlier figure, according to Reuters, but slightly below analysts' expectations. The smartphone and networks unit, by contrast, slipped into a loss as higher memory chip prices squeezed its margins. Capital spending in the chip division is set to rise 62 per cent to 76.8 trillion won this year, with a sharp increase planned for next year.
Samsung expects the memory chip shortage to deepen in 2027, saying demand "will far exceed the industry supply in comparison with 2026". Investors were nonetheless disappointed, and the shares fell more than 6 per cent in Seoul. Analyst Lee Min-hee of BNK Investment & Securities said Samsung had not really changed anything from its previous guidance. The next shareholder return policy is due to be finalised in January.