Samsung Electronics told investors to expect about 107.4 trillion won in operating profit for the three months to September, a first for any Korean company and a jump of 782.5 percent from a year earlier.
The guidance, released on October 8, put revenue near 195 trillion won. The figure surpassed the average analyst forecast by a small margin, so the quarter was not a surprise beat. Samsung saw it coming.
The driver was memory, not handsets or televisions. Its Device Solutions unit, which houses the chip business, is running memory operating margins in the 72 to 76 percent range on analyst estimates. That margin held flat while volumes climbed, which is the real signal: buyers have few alternatives for high-bandwidth memory.
Samsung became the first supplier to mass produce HBM4, the sixth-generation stacked DRAM that sits beside AI accelerators. That product is expected to contribute meaningfully to earnings next year.
The stock did not celebrate. Shares closed 2.4 percent lower on the day of the release, with foreign and institutional investors selling into the news and retail buyers absorbing the supply. Analysts said the absence of the company’s own buyback bids left fewer buyers at the margin.
Attention now turns to the October 29 earnings call, where management is expected to address whether memory demand can hold through 2028 and whether shareholder returns will rise alongside profit.
