Bit Market · Q3 2026 · Samsung Electronics

Samsung Electronics 3Q 2026

Samsung’s chip division earned a 72% operating margin as memory prices rose across every application, and Samsung expects shortages to tighten further in 2027.

Revenue: $137.8B; 3Q 2026, filed ₩195.3T
Operating income: $75.8B; 3Q 2026, filed ₩107.4T
Operating margin: 55.0%; 3Q 2026

Samsung Electronics across the Earnings Desk charts

Samsung is one of the companies in this quarter’s Earnings Desk roundup, and its third-quarter report says how memory prices moved across applications. This page covers what the presentation says about revenue, the chip division’s margin and memory prices, then what it leaves out about flash. The presentation gives memory as one figure, so it can’t say how much of the growth came from NAND. It does say what Samsung expects for QLC SSDs in the fourth quarter and for memory shortages in 2027, and that outlook is what matters if you are planning to buy a drive. The last section gives my reading of it.

What happened

Samsung Electronics’ third quarter of 2026 brought revenue of 195.3 trillion won and a 55.0% operating margin for the whole company. Almost all of the profit came from the chip division, Device Solutions. Its revenue was 147.1 trillion won, up 15% from the second quarter, and its operating profit was 106.5 trillion won, a 72% margin.

What happened

Device Solutions earned 106.5 trillion won of profit

Samsung Electronics, 3Q 2026

Revenue of the whole company, its chip division (Device Solutions) and its memory business, and the chip division’s operating profit, in trillion won. Source: Samsung Electronics 3Q 2026 earnings presentation.

Memory revenue was 140.7 trillion won, up 16%. Samsung says market prices rose across all applications, led by server demand, and that its memory business set record earnings by ramping up HBM4 sales and meeting growing demand for server SSDs.

What it means for flash

The presentation gives memory as one figure, with no split between NAND and DRAM, so it doesn’t show how much of the growth came from flash.

What it means for flash

One memory figure, and a fourth-quarter QLC plan

What the presentation gives for memory, and what it says Samsung will do in the fourth quarter. Source: Samsung Electronics 3Q 2026 earnings presentation.

For the fourth quarter Samsung expects surging demand for QLC SSDs, linked to the spread of personal AI agent services, and plans to supply more QLC.

What it means for the drive you buy

Samsung expects AI demand to tighten memory shortages further in 2027 than in 2026. My reading is that a maker expecting tighter memory supply next year has little reason to cut memory prices, and that SSDs, which are built on that memory, are unlikely to get cheaper soon.

What it means for the drive you buy

Tighter memory supply points to SSDs that stay costly

Samsung expects AI demand to tighten memory shortages further in 2027 than in 2026; the last two steps are my reading of what that means for prices. Source: Samsung Electronics 3Q 2026 earnings presentation; the last two steps are Eyes on Flash’s reading.

Company-reported results, explained. Not investment advice.

The figures

Samsung Electronics quarter by quarter, each bar as filed, the latest quarter filled.

RevenueK-IFRS

Operating incomeK-IFRS

Operating marginK-IFRS

Device Solutions revenueK-IFRS

Memory revenueK-IFRS

Against its group

Samsung chips beside the other memory makers that have filed Q3 2026.

Revenue is in US dollars so every company shares one axis, converted at the Federal Reserve’s average rate for the quarter. Each bar is the company’s own quarter that falls in these months. Samsung chips is drawn as its Device Solutions segment; the table below shows the whole company. The group report reads them together.

Each company’s own quarter that falls in these months; non-dollar revenue converted at the Federal Reserve H.10 average for the quarter; a dashed bar is preliminary. Source: Company releases; Federal Reserve H.10 via FRED.

Each company’s own quarter that falls in these months; a loss draws left of zero; a dashed bar is preliminary. Source: Company releases.

Company	Period	Revenue	Operating income	Operating margin	Capex / revenue	NAND share	Revenue, year on year	Revenue, last four quarters
Micron	FQ4 2026Jun–Aug	$54.229BGAAP	$43.751BGAAP	80.7%GAAP	19.9%net of incentives	26%GAAP	up 379.3%filed currency	$133.2BUS dollars
Samsung Electronics	3Q 2026Jul–Sep	$137.8Bfiled ₩195.3T, K-IFRS	$75.8Bfiled ₩107.4T, K-IFRS	55.0%K-IFRS	–	–	up 126.9%filed currency	$408.2BUS dollars
SK hynix	3Q 2026Jul–Sep	$73.8Bfiled ₩104.6155T, K-IFRS	$58.8Bfiled ₩83.3338T, K-IFRS	80%K-IFRS	–	–	up 327.9%filed currency	$185.2BUS dollars
CXMT (ChangXin Memory)	3Q 2026Jul–Sep	$17.6Bfiled CN¥118.71403B, CAS	$14.7Bfiled CN¥99.03947B, CAS	–	–	–	–	–

Under each period are the months it mostly covers. Year-on-year growth compares a company’s quarter with its same quarter a year earlier, in the currency it files in. The last four quarters add each quarter’s revenue in US dollars, shown where all four are filed.

Won, yen, New Taiwan dollar and yuan figures are converted to US dollars at the Federal Reserve H.10 average for the calendar quarter; the filed figure is under each.

Sources

Primary is the original paper, standard or datasheet. Secondary is a review, a vendor summary or a news report. Measured is my own test data.

Show all 1 sources, 1 primary

PrimaryEarnings Presentation: 3Q 2026 Financial ResultsSamsung Electronics, 2026