Samsung 2026 Operating Profit May Hit $100B
According to Korean media reports, KB Securities forecasts that Samsung Electronics’ operating profit in 2026 could triple compared to 2025, reaching 145 trillion KRW (approximately $99.8 billion). This surge is expected to be driven primarily by significant price increases in DRAM and NAND Flash memory.
KB Securities projects that in 2026, DRAM and NAND prices will rise by 87% and 57% year-on-year, respectively. As a result, Samsung's memory division operating profit is expected to soar 324% from 2025 levels, reaching 133 trillion KRW, with DRAM alone accounting for 108 trillion KRW—or 81% of the division's total profit.
The report also highlights Samsung's upcoming sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM4), which is anticipated to begin shipments to NVIDIA in the second quarter of 2026. HBM shipments are expected to triple compared to 2025, reaching 112 billion Gb, boosting Samsung's share of the global HBM market from 16% in 2025 to 35% in 2026.
KB Securities notes that Samsung's focus on advanced process technologies and increased production capacity for AI servers and HBM is likely to sustain tight supply conditions for memory products such as LPDDR, GDDR, and eSSD through the second half of 2026. Based on this trend, KB Securities has raised Samsung's operating profit forecast for 2027 to 165 trillion KRW.
For Samsung's upcoming fourth-quarter 2025 results, KB Securities estimates that adjusted operating profit—including semiconductor performance bonuses—could range between 21 trillion and 23 trillion KRW. The Device Solutions (DS) segment is projected to generate 16.2 trillion KRW, mainly due to quarterly DRAM and NAND price increases of 41% and 25%, respectively.
Looking ahead to 2026, KB Securities predicts that Samsung's operating profit in Q1 could grow approximately fourfold year-on-year (305%), while Q2 could see an even more dramatic sevenfold increase (617%). The firm adds that the quarterly operating profit floor is expected to rise to around 20 trillion KRW.
