Samsung could make more profit in 2026 than over past 40 years combined

Samsung Electronics could post its biggest-ever profit this year. The company’s executives have expressed optimism about achieving record-high profits in the second quarter (Q2) as well as for the full year (FY) 2026. Riding the ongoing AI boom, the company could generate more operating profit this year than its cumulative operating profit over the past 40 years.

Financial industry analysts believe that the company’s Q2 2026 operating profit could surpass KRW 84.59 trillion ($61.3 billion), while its operating profit for the full year could reach around KRW 300 trillion ($217.4 billion). If Samsung achieves those figures, it could surpass Nvidia’s Q1 2026 operating profit of $59.2 billion, making it one of the world’s most profitable companies.

Kim Yong-kwan, President and Head of Strategy for Samsung’s Device Solutions (DS) division, said that this year’s projected operating profit is expected to exceed the company’s cumulative operating profit over the past 40 years since Samsung entered the semiconductor business.

The company makes DRAM and HBM chips used in all the AI accelerator systems used by top-tier AI firms. In fact, it is one of the only three firms globally that is capable of making HBM chips. Its HBM4 chips are reportedly the fastest in the world.

Samsung Electronics acquired Korea Semiconductor in 1974 and began manufacturing integrated circuits (ICs) for LED wristwatches. It later introduced its first 64Kb DRAM chip in 1983 and began selling them in 1984. The company’s cumulative operating profit from 1985 to 2025 was less than KRW 300 trillion (~$217.4 billion).

Samsung plans to invest more than KRW 40 trillion (~$29 billion) annually to meet growing demand for AI semiconductors. It is already supplying sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM4) chips to Nvidia and is expected to supply HBM4 chips to AMD, Google, and other AI accelerator companies. The company has also started shipping seventh-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM4E) chips to customers.

Just last year, Samsung was struggling to secure Nvidia’s approval for its HBM3E chips due to performance issues. However, the company worked to ensure those problems were resolved before launching its HBM4 products.