[Edaily SOYEON KIM Reporter Song Jae-min] SamsungElectronics posted an operating profit of over 100 trillion won in a single quarter. This marks a first for a South Korean company, as the artificial intelligence (AI) supercycle continues to make history. In particular, this strong performance trend is expected to continue into the fourth quarter of this year and next year, with forecasts indicating that the imbalance between memory demand and supply will persist.

On the 8th, SamsungElectronics announced that its consolidated operating profit for the third quarter of this year was preliminarily estimated at 107.4 trillion won. This represents a 782.50% surge compared to the same period last year. Compared to the previous quarter, it increased by 20.01%. Third-quarter revenue totaled 195 trillion won, a 126.59% increase year-over-year. It rose 13.70% compared to the previous quarter.

This operating profit slightly exceeded market expectations. The consensus estimate (average forecast by securities firms) for SamsungElectronics’ third-quarter operating profit was 106.0029 trillion won, and the actual figure exceeded this by 1.3%. Revenue, however, fell short of the consensus estimate (200.2847 trillion won).

Since setting all-time records in the fourth quarter of last year with revenue of 93.8 trillion won and operating profit of 20.1 trillion won, SamsungElectronics has continued to set new records for both revenue and operating profit for four consecutive quarters. This third-quarter operating profit was nearly 2.5 times the company’s total operating profit for all of last year, which stood at 43.6 trillion won.

◇ Continued Demand for AI Memory… Expanded HBM4 Supply
These record-breaking results stem from sustained demand for AI memory. This quarter, the Memory Business Division within the Semiconductor (DS) sector is expected to have been the primary driver of the company’s overall performance. As the global battle for AI infrastructure dominance continues, forecasts that memory demand will persist through next year and the year after are gaining traction.

The key drivers of these results are High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM), along with general-purpose DRAM and NAND flash. In particular, enterprise SSDs are playing a major role in driving earnings, as AI transitions from training to inference, leading to an explosive increase in NAND demand. Within the DS division, the Memory Business Unit is estimated to have recorded operating profit of 80 trillion won, while the NAND Business Unit is estimated to have recorded nearly 30 trillion won.

As the AI memory supply shortage persists, the average selling price (ASP) of HBM is projected to more than double next year compared to this year. DRAM prices are also expected to continue rising, as the expansion of HBM production is encroaching on general-purpose DRAM production capacity.

TrendForce forecasts that the average selling price (Blended ASP) of HBM will surge by 121% next year compared to this year—more than double this year’s level. It also expects fourth-quarter contract prices for general-purpose DRAM to rise by 10–15% quarter-over-quarter, and for NAND flash by 15–20%.

SamsungElectronics is ramping up HBM4 supply in the second half of this year. Demand is expected to rise as HBM4 is incorporated into NVIDIA’s next-generation AI accelerator, “Vera Rubin.” As the share of HBM4—a next-generation product—in total supply expands, this is expected to have a positive impact on profitability.

◇ Supplier Advantage Persists… Next Year’s Operating Profit Forecast at 554 Trillion Won
The trend of quarterly operating profit exceeding 100 trillion won is expected to continue. Analysts note that as the market remains favorable for AI memory suppliers over the long term, domestic memory companies’ pricing power and medium- to long-term earnings visibility have improved. This is because memory companies, including SamsungElectronics, have secured medium- to long-term memory supply contracts spanning 3 to 5 years.

In particular, the trend toward an increasing number of long-term contracts in the memory sector is also positive in terms of securing earnings visibility. SamsungElectronics plans to expand memory supply by constructing facilities such as the P5 plant in Pyeongtaek and the Yongin Semiconductor plant. The fact that the company has mitigated concerns about a recurring cycle of falling memory prices caused by rapid supply expansion through these long-term contracts is another factor that alleviates such worries.

SamsungElectronics’ consensus estimates for next year’s annual operating profit are 554.1 trillion won, with revenue expected to reach 957 trillion won. This represents a projected increase of more than 49.8% from this year’s annual operating profit of 369.7 trillion won.

SamsungElectronics will announce its third-quarter earnings on the 29th. At that time, it will disclose specific results by business division. To strengthen communication with investors and enhance their understanding, SamsungElectronics plans to accept questions regarding its business performance in advance and address issues of high interest to shareholders during the earnings conference call.