[Edaily Reporter Choi Oh-hyun ] SamsungElectronics’ semiconductor division posted an operating profit of over 106.5 trillion won in the third quarter of this year, achieving record-breaking results. This marks the first time a global Big Tech company has recorded a quarterly operating profit of 100 trillion won. Some industry observers even suggest that the boom-and-bust cycle in the memory market—which previously recurred every three to four years—has effectively disappeared.

SamsungElectronics announced on the 29th that it recorded consolidated revenue of 195.3 trillion won and operating profit of 107.44 trillion won in the third quarter of this year. These figures represent year-over-year increases of 127% and 783%, respectively. The Device Solutions (DS) division posted an operating profit of a staggering 106.5 trillion won. The DS division’s operating profit margin reached 72.4%. SamsungElectronics is the first among global Big Tech companies to surpass 100 trillion won in quarterly operating profit. NVIDIA, the world’s largest company by market capitalization, reported a quarterly operating profit of approximately 85 trillion won in its most recent quarter.

This record-breaking performance is driven by the skyrocketing prices of High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) and general-purpose memory in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). In particular, sales of 6th-generation HBM4 more than tripled compared to the previous quarter, and its share of total HBM sales grew to around 60%. Market conditions are expected to improve even further next year compared to this year. SamsungElectronics announced that its HBM supply for next year is virtually sold out. The company has currently signed long-term supply agreements (LTAs) with 10 major clients and is in negotiations with an additional 10. It forecasts that by 2030, 60–70% of its total production capacity will be secured through multi-year supply contracts. According to SamsungElectronics, this memory supply shortage is expected to continue through 2028.

Given this situation, the view that memory cycles as seen in the past will no longer occur is gaining traction within the industry. Yoo Hoe-jun, Dean of the KAIST Graduate School of AI Semiconductors, stated, “The memory cycle has disappeared, and a new trend—the AI cycle—has emerged,” adding, “We are currently at the very beginning of this cycle, so now is not the time to worry about a downturn.”

SamsungElectronics is also expanding shareholder returns based on its massive cash generation capacity. The company has finalized a third-quarter cash dividend of 30 trillion won and plans to use the remaining funds—ranging from 55 trillion to 75 trillion won—for cash dividends, share buybacks, and share cancellations.