Samsung expects operating profit of 107.4 trillion won for the third quarter of 2026, alongside revenue of 195 trillion won. The preliminary forecast points to a sharp increase from a year earlier, with profit growing much faster than sales.
The more revealing comparison is inside Samsung. Demand for memory used in AI infrastructure has supported its semiconductor business, while higher component costs have put pressure on its device operations. Stronger company-wide earnings do not necessarily mean healthier margins across everything Samsung sells.
How the forecast compares with previous quarters
Samsung’s guidance would put operating profit at roughly 8.8 times the 12.17 trillion won earned in the third quarter of 2025. That is an increase of about 782%. Revenue would rise approximately 127% over the same period.
The forecast also represents growth from the second quarter of 2026: about 20% for operating profit and 14% for revenue.
| Metric | Q3 2025 results | Q2 2026 results | Q3 2026 guidance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 86.06 | 171.50 | 195.00 |
| Operating profit | 12.17 | 89.49 | 107.40 |
The July–September figures remain preliminary. Samsung places its operating-profit estimate within a range of 107.3 trillion to 107.5 trillion won and revenue between 194 trillion and 196 trillion won.
The distinction matters when assessing the scale of the increase. The forecast establishes Samsung’s expectations for the company as a whole; it does not yet show how much each business contributed.
AI memory demand and the device-cost squeeze
Samsung’s second-quarter performance offers some context. Its semiconductor division generated 89.2 trillion won in operating profit, close to the company’s total for that period. Samsung attributed its memory business’s strength to AI demand, a focus on server products and rising prices despite limited production capacity.
In its second-half outlook, Samsung expected demand for server DRAM, enterprise SSDs and high-bandwidth memory to keep the market undersupplied. That is a company forecast, with the eventual balance between demand and production still uncertain.
For Samsung, this creates competing pressures. Selling memory into a tight market can support chip earnings. Buying components for finished devices can become more expensive at the same time.
That tension was already visible in the second quarter. Samsung’s mobile and networks businesses together recorded an operating loss of 0.7 trillion won. The company said elevated component costs had weighed on earnings even as revenue increased from a year earlier.
For someone shopping for a phone or other electronics, those cost pressures could eventually affect retail prices. But the third-quarter guidance does not establish which devices might become more expensive, by how much or when. It offers no model-level basis for deciding to buy early.
What the October results need to explain
Samsung has scheduled its third-quarter earnings call for October 29, 2026. The key question is how the expected profit is distributed across its businesses.
The semiconductor breakdown should help clarify how memory pricing and product mix affected earnings. The device results will be important for assessing whether component costs continued to squeeze profitability. Production plans and management’s demand outlook will also matter when judging how durable the improvement could be.
Until that detail arrives, the forecast supports a substantial earnings increase without settling the outlook for consumer prices. Samsung’s chip business and its customers can experience the same memory market very differently.