Improved sales of smartphones and chips result in a hot quarter for Samsung

Led by its rebounding chip business, Samsung reported a strong third quarter earnings report with operating profit more than doubling from the subsequent quarter. Q3 revenue was reported by Samsung to be 86.1 trillion Korean won ($60.5 billion), slightly higher than the 85.93 trillion won forecast by analysts followed by LSEG Smart Estimate. That figure was up 8.85% year-over-year. As for Q3 Operating profit, Samsung reported 12.2 trillion won ($8.59 billion) topping estimates of 11.25 trillion won. The 12.2 trillion won in operating profit was up a strong 32.9% from last year’s Q3 operating profits.

Samsung’s Q3 Operating Profit was sharply higher than the Q2 Operating Profit

Samsung could see strong semiconductor sales during the beginning of next year thanks to underlying strength in the semiconductor market. Samsung’s press release included the following quote: “In the first half of 2026, we expect the semiconductor market to remain strong, driven by ongoing AI investment momentum.”

Profits for Samsung’s Device Solutions division soared more than 10-fold sequentially

The company’s chip business generated an Operating Profit of 7.0 trillion Korean won ($4.91 billion) in the third quarter, up 81% from the same period last year. It was also a better than tenfold increase in chip-based Operating Profit sequentially. At 33.1 trillion won ($23 billion), division sales were ahead 13% year-over-year. The chip unit, also known as the Device Solutions division, includes memory chips, semiconductor design, and Samsung Foundry,

Growth in AI will help both Samsung’s chip business, and its devices unit

Looking ahead, Samsung told analysts that strong growth in the AI industry would help create new market opportunities, not only for its chips, but also for its devices. Altogether, it was an encouraging quarter for the company, especially in light of the previous quarter’s report. 

AI is expected to help Samsung to continue reporting higher quarterly earnings. A company spokesman said during Wednesday’s earnings call, “We expect data center companies to continuously expand their hardware investment because of the ongoing competition to secure AI infrastructure. Therefore, our AI-related server demand keeps growing, and this demand significantly exceeds industry supply,”

In Korea on Thursday, Samsung’s shares soared 3,000 won ($2.11), or by 3% to 103,500 KRW ($72.92). That’s a lot closer to the 52-week high of 105,800 KRW ($74.33) than the 52-week low of 49,900 ($35.06).

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