Samsung Posts 107 Trillion Won in Q3 Operating Profit, Surpassing 100 Trillion Won for First Time Among Global Big Tech

Samsung Electronics has recorded an operating profit of 107.4 trillion won in the third quarter of this year, opening the era of 100 trillion won in quarterly operating profit for the first time in South Korean corporate history.

This is a record that no other company in the world, excluding Saudi Arabia's state-owned enterprise Aramco, has ever reached.

Samsung Electronics reached the 100 trillion won milestone after continuing its record-breaking streak for four consecutive quarters starting from the fourth quarter of last year, driven by the recovery of its technological competitiveness amid a super-boom in semiconductors.

Samsung Electronics announced in a regulatory filing on the 8th that its preliminary consolidated operating profit for the third quarter of this year reached 107.4 trillion won, a 782.5% increase compared to the same period last year.

Revenue increased by 126.6% year-on-year to 195 trillion won.

The operating profit margin reached an all-time high of 55.1%, an unprecedented figure in the manufacturing industry.

This operating profit exceeded the market consensus of 105.7533 trillion won compiled by Yonhap Infomax by 1.6%.

This marks the first time a South Korean company has surpassed 100 trillion won in quarterly operating profit.

It is also a first, even when including global big tech companies such as Apple and Nvidia.

Only Saudi Arabia's state-owned enterprise Aramco has previously recorded an operating profit of 86.5 billion dollars (approximately 116 trillion won) in the second quarter of 2022 during the Ukraine war.

With this, Samsung Electronics has been breaking record highs in both revenue and operating profit for four consecutive quarters, following the fourth quarter of last year when it simultaneously set all-time highs with 93.8 trillion won in revenue and 20.1 trillion won in operating profit.

The operating profit for this single quarter alone is close to 2.5 times the total operating profit of last year (43.6 trillion won).

Furthermore, the cumulative operating profit up to the third quarter of this year has reached 254.1 trillion won, greenlighting the achievement of 350조 won in annual operating profit this year.

Although performances by sector and business division were not disclosed on this day, it is analyzed that the Device Solutions (DS) division, particularly the memory business unit, single-handedly drove the company-wide performance this quarter as well.

This is the result of relentless memory demand fueled by the global hegemony competition aimed at achieving Artificial General Intelligence (AGI, capable of performing like humans across all tasks).

Industry insiders believe that the DS division's operating profit was similar to or slightly higher than the company-wide operating profit.

Weight is being lent to projections within the industry that this trend will continue not only in the fourth quarter but also into next year.

Market research firm TrendForce projected that general-purpose DRAM prices will rise by 10 to 15% and NAND prices by 15 to 20% in the fourth quarter.


HBM4, which Samsung Electronics began mass-producing for the world's first time, is also expected to fully contribute to performance improvement starting next year.

Amid forecasts for Samsung Electronics' operating profit next year forming around 550 trillion won, Meritz Securities has raised its projection range from 562 trillion won to 632 trillion won.

However, observations suggest that non-memory business units within the DS division, such as LSI and Foundry, likely continued to post losses of around 1 trillion won.

While the business recovery trend continues alongside improved operation rates, analysis points out that costs stemming from the operation of the Taylor fab in Texas, US, served as a burden.

The Device eXperience (DX) division is also analyzed to have continued its first-ever quarterly deficit for a second consecutive quarter due to cost burdens from soaring component prices.

Wall Street and securities firms estimate that the Mobile eXperience (MX) and Networks business units recorded a deficit exceeding around 1.5 trillion won.

The Visual Display (VD) and Digital Appliances (DA) business units may have also recorded a deficit at the 500 billion won level.

Samsung Display and Harman are estimated to have achieved operating profits at the levels of 1 trillion won and 200 billion to 400 billion won, respectively.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.