Samsung estimates $8.48b operating profit for Q3

Samsung expects sales of about 86 trillion won (US$60.24 billion) and operating profit of 12.1 trillion won (US$8.48 billion) for Q3 2025, according to its latest earnings guidance.

The South Korean electronics company reported that these figures are based on Korean International Financial Reporting Standards.

Samsung’s sales estimate falls within a range of 85 trillion to 87 trillion won (US$59.54 billion to US$60.94 billion), while operating profit is projected between 12 trillion and 12.2 trillion won (US$8.41 billion to US$8.55 billion).

For comparison, Samsung posted sales of 74.6 trillion won (US$52.22 billion) and operating profit of 4.7 trillion won (US$3.29 billion) in Q2 2025.

In Q3 2024, the company reported 79.1 trillion won (US$55.35 billion) in sales and 9.2 trillion won (US$6.45 billion) in operating profit.

🔗 Source: Samsung

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Samsung Q3 guidance beats consensus on memory pricing recovery

Q3 2025 operating profit guidance of 12.1 trillion won topped the 9.742 trillion won consensus by 24%, the strongest Q3 in three years, and the first quarter in 15 months above 10 trillion won 1 2.
Device Solutions is the semiconductor unit and likely earned at least 5 trillion won, over 10 times Q2 2025’s 400 billion won 2.
Some dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chip prices jumped over 170% from a year ago, while average selling prices rose about 7% for DRAM and 6% for NAND flash memory in Q3 2025 3 2.
NVIDIA cleared Samsung’s High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), setting it up to win more AI memory orders, with HBM revenue on track to nearly double to $34 billion in 2025 3 4.

Cloud operators and OEMs should secure memory supply before a 2026 HBM reset

Goldman Sachs sees HBM supply overtaking demand in 2026, with average selling prices likely falling by double digits, while several Chinese chipmakers aim to mass-produce HBM3 by late 2026 5.
DRAM supply stays tight as capacity shifts to DDR5 and HBM from DDR4, which gives sellers pricing power that may fade 6.
Micron has already reserved most of its FY 2026 HBM output under pricing deals with six buyers, a sign that cloud providers and server OEMs are moving early 6.
For AI buildouts, signing multi-quarter agreements now at current levels can cut costs before a projected 25% HBM market growth in 2026 brings more competition 5.