Key points
- How much Samsung's chip division earned
- Samsung says its 2027 HBM supply is sold out
- Why Samsung fell while SK Hynix rose
On October 29, Samsung Electronics (005930) reported its full third-quarter results and confirmed a record 107.4 trillion won ($80.3B) in operating profit. The shares fell 4.13% in Seoul to 232,000 won ($173) on the day the company also declared a 30 trillion won ($22.4B) cash dividend.
The total profit matched the estimate Samsung gave on October 8. What was new was the profit for each business. Samsung's chip division earned 106.5 trillion won ($79.6B), and Korean brokers said that was below what investors had come to expect. Samsung also didn't give any new detail on buying back its own shares.
"Samsung Electronics became more volatile, falling back after it confirmed chip-division operating profit that fell short of raised expectations," said Kim Seok-hwan, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities (미래에셋증권), according to Hankyung (한국경제).
Revenue rose 126.9% from a year earlier to 195.3 trillion won ($146.0B). Operating profit rose 783.1%. Both were records for the fourth quarter in a row. Samsung said it's the first global technology company to earn more than 100 trillion won ($74.7B) of operating profit in a single quarter.
Samsung's chip division earned 106.5 trillion won
Device Solutions, the division that runs Samsung's chip business, earned its 106.5 trillion won on revenue of 147.1 trillion won ($109.9B). That's a division figure. Compared with the company's total operating profit of 107.4 trillion won, it works out to 99%, by our calculations.
Samsung said its memory business set a quarterly record by selling much more HBM4 and more SSDs for servers. HBM, or high-bandwidth memory, is the stacked memory that sits next to AI processors, and HBM4 is the newest kind. The foundry business, which makes chips that other companies design, also improved sharply. Samsung said that came from higher sales of HBM base dies, the chip at the bottom of each HBM stack, and from customers buying more of its most advanced processes.
Device eXperience, the division that makes Galaxy phones, TVs, and home appliances, posted an operating loss of 0.8 trillion won ($598M) on revenue of 52.1 trillion won ($38.9B). Samsung said rising prices for parts, including memory, kept raising its costs. A weaker dollar and euro against the won also cut operating profit by about 10 trillion won ($7.5B) from the second quarter, mostly in the parts businesses, the company said.
Samsung says its 2027 HBM supply is already sold out
On its earnings call, Samsung said HBM4 revenue more than tripled from the second quarter and made up about 60% of its HBM revenue, Financial News (파이낸셜뉴스) reported.
Samsung said the HBM supply volume it has for 2027 is already sold out, and major customers keep sending requests for more.
"We expect a tight memory supply situation to be unavoidable not just next year but in 2028 as well," said Kim Jae-jun, the vice president who heads strategy and marketing for Samsung's memory business. "Even with new capacity, there's a limit to how fast supply can grow in a short time."
Kim said Samsung had wanted its share of the HBM market in the second half of the year to match its share of the overall DRAM market. "That goal appears to have already been reached in the third quarter," he said.
Samsung's signed long-term supply agreements with 10 large customers and is negotiating with 10 more. The company aims to fill 60% to 70% of its memory production capacity with these contracts by 2030. Samsung expects to start mass production of the next generation, HBM4E, in 2027.
Kang Seok-chae, a vice president in the foundry business, said the number of 2-nanometer projects customers ordered this year should be more than double last year's. "Next year, HPC revenue will grow to more than 50% of the total," Kang said of the foundry business. HPC, or high-performance computing, covers chips for uses such as AI data centers. Kang also said the first fab at Samsung's site in Taylor, Texas, has started running its cleanroom and moving in equipment.
Samsung didn't add to its shareholder return plan
The dividend is 4,601 won ($3.44) for each common share and each preferred share. Samsung had already promised a dividend of about 30 trillion won for this quarter in August, as part of a plan to return 90 trillion to 110 trillion won ($67.3B to $82.2B) to shareholders this year.
Samsung said 35 trillion won ($26.2B) of that is already paid or decided. That leaves 55 trillion to 75 trillion won ($41.1B to $56.1B). Samsung said the rest will include cash dividends and a large amount of share buybacks and cancellations. The board will decide the final amount and how to carry it out at a meeting at the end of January 2027.
Samsung said it knows the market is paying attention to how much cheaper its preferred shares are than its common shares. When Samsung buys back and cancels shares, the company will consider buying more preferred shares, depending on market conditions. Canceling common shares is harder for Samsung, because of a 10% ownership limit on its own insurance affiliates.
"Investor sentiment weakened because no specific shareholder return plan was presented," said Lee Kyung-min, an analyst at Daishin Securities (대신증권). Lee expects the remaining 55 trillion to 75 trillion won to be a mix of buybacks with cancellations and cash dividends. He said not knowing the details hurt the stock on October 29.
SK Hynix rose while Samsung fell
The reaction was the opposite of what happened to SK Hynix (000660) a day earlier. On October 28, SK Hynix reported record results and approved a new 20 trillion won ($14.9B) buyback. The shares rose 10.89% that day. Samsung shares rose 9.01% the same day. On October 29, SK Hynix rose another 2.62% to 1,526,000 won ($1,140).
Samsung shares had been up as much as 2.89% early on October 29, before the detailed results came out. Samsung makes up more than 27% of the Kospi's market value, and the index fell 1.24% to 5,937.66. The Kospi had closed above 6,000 the day before.
Samsung shares also fell on each of the three earlier days this year when the company released full quarterly results. They fell 1.05% on January 29, 2.43% on April 30, and 0.72% on July 30. On October 8, the day of the third-quarter estimate, they fell 2.42%.
Meanwhile, Samsung plans to spend 84.4 trillion won ($63.1B) on facilities and equipment this year, and 76.8 trillion won ($57.4B) of that goes to the chip division.
The company statements and analyst comments are translated from Korean. Won figures are converted at 1,338.1 won to the dollar, the Naver Finance rate on October 29, 2026.
