Thursday, April 30th 2026
Samsung Q1 2026 Results: Memory Profit Up Nearly 50x, Warns of 2027 Shortage
Samsung has reported a record quarterly profit for Q1 2026, with chip division operating income jumping to 53.7 trillion won ($36.15 billion), a 49% increase from the 1.1 trillion won ($745 million) posted in the same quarter last year. That figure accounted for 94% of the company's total operating profit of 57.2 trillion won ($38.7 billion), which itself was up from 6.69 trillion won a year prior. Overall revenue rose 69% year over year to 133.9 trillion won ($90.6 billion). Its record profit came mostly from the AI data center sector that pushed demand for advanced memory well beyond what Samsung and its peers can supply. The company has signed multi-year binding supply contracts with customers looking to lock in capacity, though it hasn't disclosed names or terms. Samsung's memory chief Kim Jaejune told analysts that supply is already falling well short of demand, and that based on orders already received, the gap in 2027 is expected to be even wider than in 2026.
On HBM specifically, Samsung said it began mass-production sales of HBM4 for NVIDIA's Vera Rubin platform in February and is on track to more than triple HBM revenue this year versus last. However, rising memory prices are affecting the profit of other Samsung businesses. Mobile and network division profit fell 35% to 2.8 trillion won, due to higher component costs, and the display division saw operating profit drop 20% to 400 billion won ($270 million). Reuters also reports the risk of a strike, with unions representing a large portion of Samsung's South Korean chip workforce considering work stoppages over pay disputes. For the rest of 2026, Samsung expects that increasing demand will keep pushing memory, foundry, and display businesses.
On the memory side, Q2 2026 should see continued server demand while the initial HBM4E samples are going out to customers. In the second half of 2026 Samsung will focus on next-gen GPU and CPU platform launches pushing more DDR5, SOCAMM2, and early PCIe Gen 6 enterprise SSDs.
Samsung says its foundries are running at full utilization on advanced nodes in Q2, with 2 nm customer adoption expanding and 1.4 nm development moving along on schedule. The second half of the year brings a 2 nm Gen 2 mobile ramp and broader 4 nm production for AI and HPC workloads, plus early moves into automotive and aerospace.
Displays are somehow in a mix zone since demand isn't great. Samsung knows it and plans to focus on premium OLED and high-end TV and monitor segments.
Samsung's stock has gained 88% this year, though shares slipped 2.4% following the earnings announcement.
Sources:
Samsung, Reuters
On HBM specifically, Samsung said it began mass-production sales of HBM4 for NVIDIA's Vera Rubin platform in February and is on track to more than triple HBM revenue this year versus last. However, rising memory prices are affecting the profit of other Samsung businesses. Mobile and network division profit fell 35% to 2.8 trillion won, due to higher component costs, and the display division saw operating profit drop 20% to 400 billion won ($270 million). Reuters also reports the risk of a strike, with unions representing a large portion of Samsung's South Korean chip workforce considering work stoppages over pay disputes. For the rest of 2026, Samsung expects that increasing demand will keep pushing memory, foundry, and display businesses.
16 Comments on Samsung Q1 2026 Results: Memory Profit Up Nearly 50x, Warns of 2027 Shortage
It will take them a minimum of at least 5years to bring new fabs online and probably another 3-5 years (after the initial 5 years) for it to work all the kinks out and be fully functional. All the specialised equipment they will need will be built to order by a 3rd party if not built by themselves and that all of that takes time nevermind finding the right location to put new facilities down if they cant expand their existing ones.
"Samsung Electronics is aggressively expanding memory and foundry capacity to meet AI demand, with 2026 investment set at over 110 trillion won ($73.3 billion), a record high representing a 128% increase over 2025. Key investments focus on 3D DRAM, HBM, and V-NAND production at Pyeongtaek, Korea, and new facilities in Taylor, Texas."That's inevitable, Samsung Electronics is a big business.
/s :D
www.techpowerup.com/347396/memory-makers-expect-shortages-to-end-in-late-2028-could-pause-expansion-plans#:~:text=Memory%20manufacturers%20are%20forecasting%20that,until%20the%20end%20of%202028.
fridges, washing machines, television, dram all got too much electronics inside which of course needs dram. if they had stuck with a pic ucontroller in the past you would not have the need for all the dram.
vote with your wallet. i did not and i bought as a bad customer several samsung devices. that was caused by other bad customers which caused some companies to leave certain markets. Thank you all, thank you everyone :)
Samsung needs to grow larger as nvidia so we get better prices and a more working market /sarcasm
do not forget a aio cooler with display needs dram. sometimes the homepage mentions it, sometimes not. do not worry dram less nvme will make the world better for your fridges, cars, washingmachines which needs the dram more than your storages and your personal computers and laptops. 16gib dram on a smartphone of course is necessary with 1tb of storage. nothing wrong with such products.
Just look at Micron for example. For years their stock were trading at single digit P/E ratio more akin to legacy tech stocks. Now look at them, their stock price has increased fivefold since 2025.Wouldn't it be a better strategy to just send an engineer to capture one of their competitors' factory? Save the building cost and time of having to harvest that much Tiberium.
Greed. Greed never changes.
My dad bought some fancy LG gas range a few years back and it was such a nightmare he's already replaced it.
"Samsung Q1 2026 Results: Memory Profit Up Nearly 50x, Warns of 2027 Shortage"
should be
"Samsung Q1 2026 Results: Memory Profit Up Nearly 50%, Warns of 2027 Shortage"