AI Chips Deliver 99.7% of Samsung's Profit as HBM4 Sales Set to Triple in Q3

Samsung's Q2 2026 results: revenue and profit growth

Samsung Electronics (三星電子, Samsung Electronics) posted its strongest quarterly results on record for the April-to-June period, according to a report by udn.com. Revenue reached KRW 171.5 trillion, up 130% year-on-year, and after-tax net income rose to KRW 71.62 trillion, up nearly 1,300% year-on-year.

Liberty Times (ec.ltn.com.tw) reported the same quarter's results in slightly different rounding — revenue of KRW 171.49 trillion (roughly NT$4.23 trillion) — and added that group-wide operating profit hit KRW 89.49 trillion, an increase the outlet described as "surging 19-fold."

Semiconductor division becomes the profit engine

The Device Solutions (DS) semiconductor division posted revenue of KRW 127.5 trillion and operating profit of KRW 89.2 trillion, equivalent to about 99.7% of the entire group's operating profit, according to money.udn.com. Liberty Times separately reported the DS division's operating profit grew more than 250-fold year-on-year to the same KRW 89.2 trillion figure.

The flip side of that concentration showed up in mobile: Liberty Times reported the mobile division posted an operating loss of KRW 700 billion (about NT$17.297 billion) — the mobile business's first-ever loss — which the outlet attributed to rising chip costs.

Why HBM4 sales are set to more than triple in Q3

Samsung projects High Bandwidth Memory 4 (HBM4) sales will grow more than three-fold quarter-on-quarter in Q3, with HBM4's share of total HBM revenue expected to exceed 60% in the second half, per money.udn.com. The company has also sent samples of what it calls the industry's first HBM4E to major customers and has begun negotiating 2027 supply agreements, the same report noted.

Liberty Times added color on the demand side, citing Samsung's own outlook: the company expects strong second-half memory demand concentrated in servers, driven by continued AI infrastructure capital expenditure and broader adoption of AI agents. Even if mobile and PC demand softens, the market is expected to remain in undersupply, according to the report.

Memory product mix and capacity plans

Beyond HBM4, overall memory revenue reached KRW 120.8 trillion in Q2, with DRAM and NAND bit shipments both hitting record highs and server revenue share also setting a new record, per money.udn.com.

On the NAND side, Samsung expects server SSDs to account for more than 60% of NAND revenue this year, up more than 20 percentage points from last year. The company has built out a 256TB enterprise SSD product line, and its V10 V-NAND — built on a Bonding process with a triple-stack architecture — is scheduled to enter mass production in August.

Foundry advanced-node progress

On the foundry side, Samsung expects advanced-node processes to account for more than 50% of foundry revenue in 2026, with AI and HPC chips rising from a high-teens percentage share last year to more than 30%, according to money.udn.com.

The same report said Samsung will push second-generation 2nm mobile chips into mass production in the second half of the year, while expanding shipments of 4nm LPU chips and HBM base dies, with full-year foundry revenue targeted for double-digit growth.

R&D spending and the new robotics organization

Samsung raised R&D spending to KRW 16 trillion in the quarter, up 41% from the prior quarter, per money.udn.com. The company has also set up an RX robotics organization that reports directly to the CEO, starting with B2B applications in manufacturing and logistics before moving toward highly intelligent, multi-purpose humanoid robots over the medium-to-long term, the same report said.

Cash flow and stock volatility

Operating cash flow reached KRW 105.08 trillion in Q2, according to money.udn.com. Investing and financing activities saw net outflows of KRW 47.31 trillion and KRW 17.89 trillion, respectively, yet broad cash still rose KRW 42.62 trillion to KRW 190 trillion, with net cash climbing to KRW 167.59 trillion.

Despite the record results, Liberty Times reported that Samsung shares swung sharply on July 30: the stock opened higher, turned negative and fell more than 3%, then surged 8.4% near midday before the rally eased.

What this means

The two reports together show a company whose earnings are now almost entirely a semiconductor story: the DS division supplied about 99.7% of group operating profit and grew that profit more than 250-fold year-on-year, while the mobile division — squeezed by the same chip-cost dynamics — posted its first-ever operating loss. That concentration is set to deepen in the near term, since Samsung itself is projecting HBM4 sales to more than triple quarter-on-quarter and HBM4's share of HBM revenue to pass 60% in the second half, alongside a foundry business pushing advanced nodes past half of its revenue. Yet the balance-sheet strength this quarter's cash flow built — net cash up to KRW 167.59 trillion despite tens of trillions of won in investing and financing outflows — sat alongside a stock price that swung from a 3%-plus loss to an 8.4% gain within the same trading day, a reminder that record profit concentration in one division did not translate into a calm market reaction.