SEOUL: Samsung Electronics on Thursday (Oct 8) projected its quarterly profit would top 100 trillion won (US$74 billion), a world first for a technology company, estimating a nearly nine-fold jump in third-quarter earnings as booming demand for AI chips drove strong memory sales.
The world's largest memory chipmaker estimated an operating profit of 107.4 trillion won for the July to September period, slightly ahead of an LSEG SmartEstimate of 106.1 trillion won, a regulatory filing showed.
The forecast marks Samsung's fourth straight quarter of record operating profit, underscoring a deepening global memory chip shortage as AI infrastructure investment outpaces supply growth, which has driven chip prices up sharply.
Samsung and Micron expected the imbalance to persist into 2028, although rising costs, Chinese competition and potential US semiconductor tariffs pose risks to the longer-term earnings outlook.
Guess WordCrack the word, one row at a timeBuzzwordCreate words using the given lettersMini SudokuTiny puzzle, mighty brain teaserMini CrosswordSmall grid, big challengeWord SearchSpot as many words as you can Show More Show Less"There were uncertainties surrounding Samsung's earnings as analysts cut their estimates, but the results turned out to be better than expected," said Lee Jae-won, an analyst at Yuanta Securities.
Lee said investors would also be closely watching for details of Samsung's shareholder return policy during its earnings call later this month.
Prices have soared due to the tight supply of conventional DRAM and NAND chips as well as growing demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM), essential for processing vast amounts of data for AI applications.
Third-quarter revenue would likely rise 127 per cent to 195 trillion won from a year earlier, Samsung said.
The company will release detailed results, including a breakdown of earnings by business division, on Oct 29.