Samsung forecasts record 107.4 trillion won quarterly profit as AI memory demand grows

Samsung Electronics announced in South Korea on October 8 that it expects operating profit of 107.4 trillion won for the July–September quarter, approximately $80 billion. The forecast signals another sharp increase in earnings as demand for memory used in artificial intelligence data centres grows, although the company has not yet disclosed results for individual businesses.

The company’s preliminary guidance puts consolidated sales at 195 trillion won. These are estimates ahead of its full third-quarter results, which the BBC says are expected at the end of October. The profit figure measures operating profit, not net income.

How Samsung’s profit forecast compares

Samsung’s comparison figures show operating profit of 12.17 trillion won and sales of 86.06 trillion won in the same quarter of 2025. The Korea Times reports that the new estimates would represent annual increases of 782.5 percent in operating profit and 126.6 percent in sales if finalized.

The forecast also exceeds the preceding quarter’s performance. Samsung reported operating profit of 89.49 trillion won and sales of 171.5 trillion won for April–June. Calculated from those figures, the new guidance implies quarterly increases of approximately 20 percent in operating profit and 13.7 percent in sales.

The comparison with market expectations was mixed. According to The Korea Times, operating profit guidance exceeded a brokerage consensus estimate of 106.64 trillion won, while expected sales fell below the consensus of 200.64 trillion won. The profit beat therefore did not extend to revenue.

AI memory demand and the limits of the guidance

The BBC attributes the earnings surge to demand for memory chips used in AI data centres. It identifies Samsung, South Korean rival SK Hynix and US producer Micron as major memory manufacturers supplying chips crucial to AI companies such as Nvidia.

Samsung’s announcement itself provides consolidated figures rather than a breakdown of that demand. The Korea Times reports that the company does not give estimates by business division in its preliminary guidance. The release consequently does not establish how much of the forecast profit came from memory or AI-related products.

The Korea Times reports analysts’ assessment that sales of sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory, HBM4, for Nvidia’s Vera Rubin platform contributed during the quarter. That is an explanation offered in the newspaper’s reporting, rather than a customer-specific revenue figure or divisional result disclosed in Samsung’s announcement.

Advanced AI memory is not the only potential driver identified in that reporting. The Korea Times says conventional DRAM prices continued to rise at double-digit rates, even though increases slowed from the previous quarter. Those price gains were also seen as supporting earnings.

Supply agreements provide another part of the context. According to The Korea Times, Samsung said during its second-quarter earnings call that long-term agreements were increasing. Analysts believe that trend continued in the third quarter; the newspaper reports that such agreements can help cushion memory-price cycles.

What Samsung’s full results need to clarify

There are also expectations beyond chips. The BBC reports that Samsung’s folding smartphones, launched in August, were expected to support performance. Its report does not quantify their earnings contribution, and the preliminary consolidated figures do not establish how the smartphone business performed.

In its published guidance, Samsung describes the accounting basis as K-IFRS. It says Korean disclosure regulations prevent it from offering earnings estimates as a range, so the headline numbers represent the medians of underlying ranges: 194–196 trillion won for sales and 107.3–107.5 trillion won for operating profit.

The full earnings release expected at the end of October is the next opportunity to examine the preliminary totals alongside the performance of individual businesses. Until then, the consolidated forecast establishes the scale of Samsung’s expected increase, while the precise contribution of AI memory remains unconfirmed in its guidance.