Samsung Electronics said on Thursday, October 29, that its operating profit rose nearly ninefold to a record high in the third quarter, driven by robust demand for artificial-intelligence chips, Reuters reported. The world's top memory chipmaker reported operating profit of 107.4 trillion won ($80.04 billion) for the quarter, up from 12.2 trillion won a year earlier — yaani, roughly $80 billion of profit in a single quarter, the first time the company has crossed the 100-trillion-won mark.

Source: Reuters

107.4 trillion wonQ3 operating profit — a record, up 783% year on year
195.3 trillion wonQ3 revenue, up about 127% year on year
106.5 trillion wonOperating profit of the semiconductor division alone

Korean reporting put the same figures in fuller detail. The Korea JoongAng Daily said revenue grew 126.9% on year to 195.3 trillion won and net profit rose 514.4% to 75.1 trillion won, while the Seoul Economic Daily reported that memory revenue alone reached 140.7 trillion won, a 427% surge from a year earlier, as demand for high-bandwidth memory and server DRAM climbed with AI infrastructure spending.

Source: Korea JoongAng Daily

The two Korean reports also described a split company: the chip business accounted for about 99% of total operating profit, while the device unit behind smartphones and home appliances booked a loss for a second consecutive quarter. Samsung said its 2027 high-bandwidth memory supply was already sold out, and it expects the memory shortage to deepen next year as AI demand outruns industry supply.

Samsung confirmed a quarterly dividend of 30 trillion won — 4,601 won per share — within a shareholder-return programme of as much as 110 trillion won, the largest in its history, according to the Seoul Economic Daily. Its rival SK Hynix reported strong earnings a day earlier, helping ease market concerns that AI-driven chip earnings could lose momentum.

Source: Seoul Economic Daily

Despite the record headline, Samsung shares fell in morning trading in Seoul — as much as 6.2% at one point, according to the Korea JoongAng Daily — as investors reacted to results that broadly matched expectations and to the lack of new detail on shareholder returns. The broader KOSPI index also slid after a sharp surge a day earlier.