Samsung smashes profit expectations with Q3 surge driven by chip rebound

Samsung just ripped through Wall Street’s estimates with a massive third-quarter profit jump, powered by a recovery in chips.

The company reported 12.2 trillion Korean won in operating profit for Q3, more than double the previous quarter’s figure.

Revenue hit 86.1 trillion won, beating the 85.93 trillion forecast from LSEG SmartEstimate. Samsung also crushed its own guidance, which had predicted around 12.1 trillion won.

Compared to a year ago, revenue was up 8.85%, and operating profit rose 32.9%. But the bigger news is the bounce from the June quarter, when Samsung was buried under weak chip demand.

Profit surged 160% from Q2. Revenue also climbed 15.5% quarter-over-quarter. After the announcement, Samsung’s shares jumped over 5% in early Asia trading.

Chip unit more than doubles profit after brutal Q2

Samsung’s Device Solutions division (the group handling memory chips, foundry and logic) was the engine behind this surge, according to the earnings report.

The chip division brought in 7.0 trillion won in operating profit, up from 3.86 trillion won in Q3 last year. Sales for the unit hit 33.1 trillion won, rising from 29.27 trillion won in the same quarter last year. That’s a 19% jump from Q2 alone.

The reason? AI demand. Samsung’s high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, used in AI processing, saw record-high sales. The company said this was the highest quarterly revenue ever for the division.

It was a clear comeback from the prior quarter when chips were bleeding. The memory segment alone set an all-time high, fueled by the global race to build AI data centers and large-scale compute.

Samsung had recently fallen behind SK Hynix in HBM chips, losing its edge for the first time. But it reportedly passed Nvidia’s qualification tests for a new generation of advanced HBM chips last month, which would be a key win.

According to a report by Counterpoint Research, Samsung also reclaimed the top spot in the memory market in Q3, beating SK Hynix after trailing in Q2.

Looking ahead, Samsung plans to ramp up production of its HBM4 chips as it heads toward 2026. It’s gunning hard for market dominance in the next-gen AI memory war.

Samsung’s mobile and network businesses, which handle smartphones, tablets, and wearables, also had a solid quarter. The unit posted 3.6 trillion won in operating profit, up from 2.82 trillion won a year ago.

The company said the boost came from strong sales of its flagship devices, including the newly launched Galaxy Z Fold7.

The overall device unit saw both higher sales and higher profit. Samsung forecasted that the rapid growth of the AI industry would open up new market opportunities for both its devices and chip businesses in the current quarter.

To put it all together: Samsung was down bad in Q2, but came back swinging in Q3; on the back of chips, smartphones, and a little AI magic.

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