Lee Gyu-lee is a business writer at The Korea Times, focusing primarily on IT & telecommunications, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and KOTRA. Prior to this, she has covered a wide range of cultural news, from film, television and K-pop to lifestyle and fashion.
Chipmakers' Q3 earnings outlook rosy due to AI boom
Visitors view a display explaining semiconductor manufacturing process at the Samsung Electronics booth during the 2025 International Advanced Semiconductor Substrate and Packaging Industry Exhibition in Incheon, Sept. 4. Yonhap
By Lee Gyu-lee
Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are expected to deliver handsome third-quarter earnings, as the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure fuels soaring demand for advanced memory chips.
Market analysts forecast that both companies will announce results surpassing market expectations, driven by robust sales of high-value products such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM).
Samsung Electronics is expected to announce its third-quarter earnings guidance on Tuesday. According to financial data service provider FnGuide, the company’s revenue during the period from July to September is estimated to exceed 83.8 trillion won ($58.98 billion), up 5.98 percent from the same period last year. Operating profit is expected to rise 7.80 percent year-on-year to about 9.9 trillion won.
Some analysts predict that Samsung’s operating profit could exceed 10 trillion won, marking the first time in 15 months that the company has surpassed the threshold.
In a report released on Sept. 19, Hanwha Investment & Securities projected this quarter’s revenue at 84.1 trillion won and operating profit at 10.7 trillion won, with dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) alone expected to contribute approximately 5.9 trillion won.
SK hynix's high-bandwidth memory 4 / Courtesy of SK hynix
SK Hynix is also expected to record a strong performance this quarter, with FnGuide forecasting its quarterly revenue to reach 24.02 trillion won, a 36.7 percent year-on-year increase. Its operating profit is expected to reach 10.84 trillion won, soaring 54.15 percent compared to the same period last year. If it posts as predicted, this would be the company’s first time surpassing 10 trillion won in quarterly operating profit since its founding.
The optimistic outlook comes on the heels of recent blowout earnings for U.S. chipmaker Micron Technology. On Sept. 23 (local time), Micron announced that from June to August, it posted $11.32 billion in revenue and $3.96 billion in operating profit, up 46 percent and 126.6 percent, respectively, year-on-year.
Micron’s performance is often seen as a key indicator gauging the cycle of the semiconductor industry, thus bolstering confidence that the two Korean chip giants will also post standout results.
Another key driver behind these expectations is the surge in demand for high-value products like HBM and double data rate 5 DRAM, fueled by the rapid expansion of AI.
With major global tech giants expanding memory capacity for next-generation AI chips by two to three times compared to previous levels, the supply-demand imbalance has pushed up memory prices.
OpenAI’s ambitious Stargate Project, a $500 billion initiative to build AI data centers, could further extend the boom for Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. The project is estimated to require up to 900,000 HBM chips per month, more than double the current global production capacity, creating additional demand valued at over 100 trillion won.