Samsung Electronics projected a record fourth-quarter operating profit of 20 trillion won ($13.82 billion), up nearly three-fold from 6.49 trillion won a year earlier.
This marks the company’s highest quarterly profit ever, exceeding the previous record of 17.6 trillion won in Q3 2018. The surge is driven by tight supply and strong AI-related demand for conventional memory chips, which power servers, PCs, and mobile devices.
DRAM prices skyrocketed, with contract prices rising 313 percent in Q4 year-on-year and expected to climb another 55-60 percent in Q1 2026. The global DRAM market could more than double to $311 billion by 2026, nearly six times its 2023 size.
Samsung’s semiconductor division is set to contribute about 17 trillion won to Q4 operating profit, while revenue overall is projected to reach a record 93 trillion won, up 23 percent.
Analysts expect memory undersupply to continue through 2026, supporting strong earnings, though rising memory costs may pressure margins for data centres, PCs, and smartphones.
Samsung’s mobile business may face profit declines due to higher component costs, while its display business benefits from robust iPhone 17 sales.
Samsung’s high-bandwidth memory (HBM) business, including HBM4 chips, is poised for significant growth next year, particularly from customers adopting custom AI chips like Nvidia’s tensor processing units. The company will release a detailed earnings breakdown for each division on January 29, 2026.
