Samsung joins Big Tech's league with estimated $38B profit, crushing projections

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Samsung joins Big Tech's league with estimated $38B profit, crushing projections

Published: 07 Apr. 2026, 16:51 Updated: 07 Apr. 2026, 22:03

LEE JAE-LIM
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Samsung Electronics' Suwon headquarters in Gyeonggi on April 7 [YONHAP]

Samsung Electronics reported a preliminary operating profit of 57.2 trillion won ($38 billion) for the first quarter of 2026, marking a 755 percent on-year surge that blew past already elevated market expectations, driven by robust memory demand and rising chip prices.

The result comfortably exceeded the 40.2 trillion won consensus compiled by FnGuide, which had been revised upward just days earlier. The earnings also put the Korean chipmaker on par with U.S. Big Tech peers — in the latest quarter, Microsoft posted $38.3 billion in operating profit, Alphabet posted $35.9 billion, Nvidia posted $44.3 billion and Apple posted $50.9 billion.

The quarterly figure marks a new all-time high for the Suwon, Gyeonggi-based chipmaker, surpassing its previous full-year record operating profit of 58.9 trillion won in 2018, and far exceeding its full-year 2025 operating profit of 43.5 trillion won.

Revenue for the quarter climbed 68 percent from a year earlier to 133 trillion won, also beating market forecasts of 119 trillion won.

Analysts expect profitability to continue rising memory prices are anticipated to climb further amid an extreme supply-demand imbalance driven by expanding AI inference demand and constrained supply growth. Consensus estimates for the remaining quarters have been revised higher, with operating profit projected at 55.4 trillion won in the second quarter, 64.2 trillion won in the third quarter and 67.5 trillion in the fourth quarter, bringing the full-year 2026 operating profit to 244.3 trillion won.

KB Securities set the highest target stock price at 360,000 won for the next 12 months following the preliminary earnings release. The brokerage forecasts a hefty operating profit of 327 trillion won in 2026 and 488 trillion won in 2027, based on projected on-year price gains of 250 percent for dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and 187 percent for NAND flash.

“Samsung is expected to solidify its position among the world’s most profitable companies,” KB Securities analyst Kim Dong-won said. “While the estimated 2026 operating profit gap between Samsung and Nvidia is relatively narrow at 30 trillion won, Samsung’s current market capitalization of 1.25 quadrillion won remains just 19 percent of Nvidia’s and 57 percent of TSMC, highlighting its significant valuation upside.”

Samsung Electronics' Seocho office in southern Seoul on April 7 [NEWS1]

Shinhan Securities raised its six-month target stock price to 270,000 won, noting that the chipmaker has the largest DRAM and NAND capacity amid strained global supply. The company is also expected to be the fastest among peers to bring new 1c-node DRAM capacity online.

The semiconductor division is estimated to have generated 53 trillion won in operating profit alone, including 54.5 trillion won from memory semiconductors and a loss of 1.5 trillion won from system semiconductor operations, according to Daishin Securities. The smartphone division is estimated at 3.4 trillion, Samsung Display at 300 billion won, the consumer electronics division at 200 billion won and Harman at 300 billion won.

The company did not provide a breakdown by business division and is set to release a full earnings report later this month.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [[email protected]]