Samsung Posts a Record $80 Billion Profit, but Revenue Misses Forecasts

Samsung Electronics reported about $80.3B (₩107.4 trillion) in operating profit Thursday in Seoul. All amounts are converted at roughly ₩1,338 per dollar, as implied by the Korea Times.

It is the first time a Korean company's quarterly profit has topped $80B. Revenue fell short, and the stock closed down 2.42% at ₩262,000 (about $196).

Profit Beat, Revenue Did Not

These are preliminary figures; the segment breakdown arrives on Oct. 29. Profit rose 782.5% year on year and revenue 126.6%.

If revenue missed while profit beat, a larger share of every dollar sold became profit. In memory, price is running ahead of volume.

Sources point to a stronger won and weak phone sales behind the revenue gap. Samsung had beaten estimates by 21-34% in the prior three quarters; this time the margin was 1.2%, according to LSEG. "A beat has stopped being enough." (Investing.com)

Estimates suggest the chip division alone may have earned about $82B (Chosun Ilbo), more than the group total. The difference is a $0.8-2.0B loss at the phone division, which buys Samsung's own memory at higher prices, and a roughly $0.75B foundry loss.

Why AI Needs So Much Memory

HBM (high-bandwidth memory) feeds the GPU, server DRAM is the processor's working space, and enterprise SSDs built from NAND store the data. As inference spreads, demand for all three rises.

At Kioxia, the average selling price rose 70% year on year in April-June while bit shipments grew only in the low single digits; price is carrying growth. Samsung expects HBM sales to triple in 2026.

Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra says he cannot see when balance returns: "we do not have line of sight to when supply and demand will return to balance."

The Market Priced the Pace

The market did not look at the size of the profit. It looked at how much it grew from the prior quarter.

A price increase leaves costs unchanged and drops straight to profit, so memory profits grow faster than prices. But that leverage weakens as margins rise.

Bernstein expects supplier gross margins to fall from a peak near 90% to the high 70s by late 2028. Samsung trades at 4.35 times forward twelve-month earnings, a sign the market does not treat this profit as durable (What Is Valuation?).

Why the Stock Fell

The Kospi fell 2.62% the same day. Overnight, the U.S. 10-year yield topped 5.36%, and attacks in the Strait of Hormuz pushed Brent above $102.

The Nasdaq 100's past month frames how rising yields have pressed on tech stocks as a whole.

Samsung-specific factors came on top: the revenue miss, slowing profit growth and a strong won. Sources do not weigh them; the index falling as much as Samsung points to a broad selloff.

Foreign investors sold a net $1.5B and institutions $1.25B, while retail investors bought a net $2.2B. SK Hynix was the stock foreigners sold most.

Who Is Gaining Market Share

J.P. Morgan expects Samsung's HBM share to rise from 20% to 34% this year, and SK Hynix's to fall from 60% to 46%.

In TrendForce's second-quarter rankings, every company grew revenue at least 37.9% in a single quarter:

In a tight market, losing share does not mean losing revenue; in a glut, it does.

Micron has contracted more than 75% of its 2027 output, so Samsung affects the price of renewals rather than its volume. Its 86.25% gross margin guidance on Sept. 30 fell short of forecasts; the chart below shows the past three months (earnings analysis).

SK Hynix supplies more than half of Nvidia's HBM; Samsung's HBM4E reportedly passed Nvidia qualification, though Samsung has not confirmed it. For SanDisk, the risk is Samsung chasing share with price in enterprise SSDs, while a third supplier gives Nvidia pricing leverage.

What It Means for Investors

• The market had priced the record; the new information it priced was profit growth slowing from 56.3% to 20.1%.
• For Micron and SanDisk, the question is how far margins can rise as price gains slow; SK Hynix is ceding HBM share to Samsung, and Nvidia gains bargaining power.
• Dates to watch: SK Hynix on Oct. 27, Samsung's HBM sales growth and HBM4 shipments to Nvidia on Oct. 29, and Kioxia's NAND pricing on Oct. 30.
• The one risk that breaks the thesis: once supply balances, Samsung, which makes 39.4% of DRAM, cuts prices to fill capacity.

Sources: Samsung's Oct. 8, 2026 preliminary earnings release; Oct. 8 Korea Times, SBS and JoongAng Daily reports; TrendForce price forecasts and share rankings; Micron's Sept. 30 earnings call. LSEG consensus via TradingKey, HBM4E report via Hankyung; segment profits and HBM shares are estimates. Rate: about ₩1,338 per dollar. Updated: 5:13 a.m. ET — major expansion; 5:20 a.m. ET — market share section added; 6:45 a.m. ET — converted to dollars, shortened.