Samsung Electronics on track for recovery upon memory uptrend

The Samsung logo is displayed at Samsung Electronics' office in Seocho District, Seoul, Oct. 14. Yonhap

Samsung Electronics said Thursday that its sales and operating profit for the third quarter stood at 86.1 trillion won ($60.45 billion) and 12.2 trillion won, respectively, marking the company's largest quarterly sales.

The improvement was led by the solid recovery in its memory chip business amid the sharp growth in demand for artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators and server storage. Brisk sales of foldable and flagship smartphones also contributed to the overall recovery in its profitability.

According to the company’s regulatory filing, third-quarter sales jumped 8.8 percent from 79.1 trillion won a year earlier, while operating profit surged 32.48 percent from 9.2 trillion won during the same period.

Attendees view Samsung Electronics' high-bandwidth memory 3E and 4 chips displayed at the company's booth at SEDEX 2025 in Gangnam District, Seoul, Oct. 22. Yonhap

Notably, its chipmaking Device Solutions (DS) division saw a sharp rebound. The division posted 33.1 trillion won in sales and 7 trillion won in operating profit, up 13 percent and 79.5 percent year-on-year, respectively.

It was the DS division’s largest quarterly revenue, buoyed by expanded sales of AI-specific high-bandwidth memory (HBM) 3E chips and strong demand for Double Data Rate 5 (DDR5) solid-state drives for servers. The company said profitability also improved, driven by higher average selling prices and reduced one-off inventory-related costs from the previous quarter.

Particularly, Samsung noted that HBM3E chips are now being mass-produced and supplied to all customers, while samples for the most advanced HBM4 have been shipped to every client that requested them.

The foundry business achieved a record in quarterly orders, driven by strong demand for advanced process technologies. It added that it began mass production of products based on a 2-nanometer Gate-All-Around process.

The Device Experience (DX) division, which manages mobile phones, home appliances and other devices, posted 48.4 trillion won in sales and 3.5 trillion won in operating profit, up 8 percent and 3 percent year-on-year, respectively.

Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Z Fold7 smartphones are displayed at a showroom in the company's office in Seocho District, Seoul, July 15. Yonhap

Driven by strong sales of the Galaxy Z Fold7, its smartphone business improved in both revenue and operating profit, achieving 34.1 trillion won in sales and 3.6 trillion won in operating profit. However, slowing TV markets, a seasonal downturn for home appliances and U.S. tariff impacts led the home appliance business to post a 0.1 trillion won operating loss.

Samsung Display, a wholly owned subsidiary, posted sales of 8.1 trillion won and operating profit of 1.2 trillion won. Sales rose 1.21 percent from 8 trillion won a year earlier, but operating profit fell 20 percent from 1.51 trillion won during the same period.

Looking ahead, Samsung said it expects new market opportunities for both its DS and DX divisions in the fourth quarter due to the rapid growth of the AI industry.

In the memory segment, the company said it will focus on handling the growing demands for AI services and servers by expanding sales of HBM3E and high-capacity DDR5 DRAMs for servers, as well as expanding sales of high-performance NAND storage.

Samsung said its facility investment for 2025 is expected to reach about 47.4 trillion won. The DS division will account for 40.9 trillion won, while Samsung Display will invest around 3.3 trillion won. The DS division plans to focus on upgrading to advanced process technologies and reinforcing existing production lines to meet demand for high value-added products.