Samsung Electronics said it expects consolidated sales of about 195 trillion won and operating profit of 107.4 trillion won for the third quarter of 2026. The preliminary figures, released on October 8, cover the July-to-September period and are estimates prepared under Korean International Financial Reporting Standards. Samsung plans to publish detailed business-unit results on October 29.
The company provided estimate ranges of 194 trillion to 196 trillion won for sales and 107.3 trillion to 107.5 trillion won for operating profit. Because Korean disclosure rules do not allow earnings guidance to be reported as a range, Samsung presented the midpoint of each range. Net profit and separate results for semiconductors, mobile devices and consumer electronics were not included in the initial announcement.
Operating profit is nearly nine times last year’s level
Samsung’s official comparison table shows third-quarter 2025 sales of 86.06 trillion won and operating profit of 12.17 trillion won. Against those figures, the new guidance implies sales growth of about 126.6% and an operating-profit increase of approximately 782.5%. In the second quarter of 2026, Samsung reported sales of 171.5 trillion won and operating profit of 89.49 trillion won.
Reuters said the 107.4 trillion won estimate was slightly above the LSEG SmartEstimate of 106.1 trillion won. If confirmed, it would be the first time a technology company had reported more than 100 trillion won in quarterly operating profit. The number remains company guidance for now, however, and the final total and divisional breakdown will not be available until the full report.
Yonhap reported that, if the guidance is confirmed, Samsung will have posted record quarterly sales and operating profit for a fourth consecutive quarter beginning in late 2025. The agency calculated an operating margin of about 55.1% from the guidance. Samsung did not separately publish that margin, so it should be treated as a derived measure rather than an additional company forecast.
AI infrastructure lifted memory demand
Independent reporting attributed the increase mainly to tight supplies of conventional DRAM and NAND memory and strong demand for high-bandwidth memory used in artificial-intelligence data centers. Reuters reported that AI infrastructure investment has been growing faster than supply, pushing memory prices sharply higher. Analysts also estimate that Samsung expanded its HBM shipments during the quarter.
Samsung did not say in its short guidance how much profit came from each division. The assessment of memory’s contribution therefore comes from analysts and industry sources cited by Reuters, Yonhap and the Financial Times. Those reports also indicate that higher component costs pressured the mobile and consumer-electronics businesses, while the foundry operation likely remained loss-making because of fixed costs and relatively low utilization.
High-bandwidth memory is used alongside AI accelerators to move large quantities of data quickly. As demand rises and production capacity shifts toward data-center products, the same market can increase component costs for smartphones and personal computers. For Samsung, the supply imbalance may support semiconductor earnings while putting pressure on margins in device businesses that purchase memory components.
Investors are watching sustainability
Samsung shares moved only slightly after the guidance. Analysts cited by Reuters said attention has shifted from the size of the current profit to whether AI investment and memory-price growth can continue. The stronger South Korean won reduces the local-currency value of overseas sales, while competition from Chinese chipmakers remains a longer-term risk.
The October 29 report will be important for determining how much the memory, foundry, mobile-device and consumer-electronics divisions contributed. Investors will also look for information about capital spending, HBM production capacity and shareholder returns. The preliminary guidance is therefore a strong indicator of the quarter’s direction, but it is not a substitute for the complete financial statements.
