Samsung Electronics just announced another all-time high quarterly result – revenue grew by 14% quarter-on-quarter (compared to Q3). The press release claims that Samsung Electronics is the world’s first tech company to exceed KRW 100 trillion in quarterly operating profit – specifically, it took in KRW 107.4 trillion in operating profit.
Device Solutions (DS), the division that makes memory chips, is at the heart of all this growth. It posted KRW 147.1 trillion in consolidated revenue and a whopping KRW 106.5 trillion in operating profit – another record-breaking quarter for the DS division.
Samsung attributes this success to the major surge in HBM4 sales and also sales of server SSDs. For the next quarter, the company expects memory demand to grow further as new CPU and GPU platforms hit the market.
Things will continue to ramp up into next year. The company writes: “increasing AI-driven demand will far exceed the industry supply in comparison with 2026.”
As the old saying goes, you have to spend money to make money. Samsung Electronics increased its quarterly capital expenditure to KRW 29 trillion, up KRW 12.2 trillion compared to Q3 and up KRW 19.8 trillion year over year. Most of that went into DS (KRW 27.2 trillion) and a fraction (KRW 1.1 trillion) went to Samsung Display Corporation.
Samsung Mobile eXprience (MX), the division that builds phones, and the Networks Business reported a combined KRW 37.7 trillion in consolidated revenue and an operating loss of KRW 0.6 trillion. For comparison, MX and Networks reported KRW 33.2 trillion in consolidated revenue and an operating loss of KRW 0.7 trillion in Q2.
MX has plans to rally in Q4 – it will push the Galaxy Z Fold8, the Z Fold8 Ultra and the Galaxy S26 series during the end-of-year shopping season to drive sales growth. There will be “new ecosystem products” too, whatever that means.
The plan for 2027 is to improve its product mix by focusing on flagship phones, including launching new models that promise “hardware and form-factor innovation”.
There’s good news from the foundry business, Samsung LSI. Revenue grew as sales of flagship chipsets and 200MP image sensors improved – the plan for Q4 is to keep that up. LSI expects “double-digit” revenue growth and higher operating profit as more orders for 2nm chips and 4nm NPUs come in. It also expects sales of HBM base dies to continue to expand.
For next year, the foundry business expects that strong demand for its 2nm and 4nm nodes will power further revenue growth. The fab in Taylor, Texas is expected to begin operation next year. As for image sensors, Samsung will seek non-mobile applications for its high-resolution sensors. That said, growing sales of flagship smartphones will also drive demand.
Samsung Display Corporation reported KRW 8.0 trillion in revenue and an operating profit of KRW 1.1 trillion. Demand for premium smartphone displays was strong during the quarter and it expects things to tick up during the holiday quarter. However, SDC warns that earnings will see limited growth due to unnamed external factors.
Follow the Source link for more numbers, including details on how other Samsung divisions performed – Visual Display, Digital Appliances and others.
One last thing – Samsung Electronics announced it will pay out cash dividends of KRW 4,601 per common share and the same amount per preferred share for a total of KRW 30 trillion in Q3. The goal for 2026 is to return KRW 90-110 trillion to shareholders, but that includes a “substantial” share repurchasing program, not just cash dividends.
