Samsung eyes $80B quarterly profit as memory buyers pay the price

Samsung Electronics expects third-quarter revenue to more than double and operating profit to reach nearly nine times last year's level as the AI infrastructure boom fuels demand for memory. The South Korean company is among the major memory manufacturers benefiting from demand for chips used in datacenter servers and GPUs. Although Samsung will not report its full earnings until the end of this month, its guidance puts sales at between ₩194 trillion and ₩196 trillion (about $145 billion) for the quarter ended September 30, 2026. This is more than double the ₩86.1 trillion ($63 billion) for the same period last year. The company expects operating profit of between ₩107.3 trillion and ₩107.5 trillion (about $80 billion), compared with just ₩12.2 trillion ($9 billion) for Q3 2025, roughly 8.8 times last year's figure. Samsung's brief guidance note does not break down performance by business division. …