Samsung Expects Record Q3 Profits Driven by AI Memory Demand
Driven by booming demand for AI-related memory chips, Samsung Electronics expects its Q3 operating profit to reach 107.4 trillion Korean won, representing an almost ninefold increase year-over-year. The company also projects Q3 revenue to grow 127% year-over-year to 195 trillion won. This financial milestone underscores how the global generative AI boom is generating massive profits for top memory chip manufacturers like Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron. However, it also illustrates how soaring memory component costs are squeezing profit margins for downstream hardware businesses, including smartphones and consumer electronics. While surging DRAM, NAND, and HBM prices boosted Samsung's memory chip unit, analysts estimate that its mobile division suffered a loss exceeding $1 billion in Q3 due to higher bill-of-materials costs. Additionally, Samsung's foundry business continued to operate at a loss due to high fixed costs and low capacity utilization, though advanced node demand is expected to improve utilization in coming quarters.
## BACKGROUND
High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) is a 3D-stacked SDRAM architecture designed to deliver exceptional throughput for data-intensive AI workloads. AI accelerators rely heavily on HBM to prevent data bottlenecks during large model training and inference. Rising demand for HBM alongside traditional memory has fueled a sustained price recovery across the entire semiconductor market.