Samsung Electronics expects to set a historic financial record in 2026. According to Kim Yong-kwan, President of the Device Solutions semiconductor division, the company's profit for the year could exceed the cumulative profit Samsung has earned in all 40 years of its semiconductor business.
The statement was made at an internal employee meeting on July 3, shortly before the release of preliminary results for the second quarter of 2026. The division head noted that the company expects to meet market expectations for operating profit. Analysts currently forecast Samsung around 300 trillion won (approximately $200 billion) in operating profit for the entire year 2026.
Amid rapidly growing demand for AI memory, Samsung continues to actively raise DRAM prices. In the first quarter of 2026, the company increased the cost of mass-produced DRAM chips by approximately 90% compared to fourth-quarter 2025 prices, followed by another increase of 50–60% in the second quarter. Samsung is now negotiating with customers for a new price hike – up to 20% quarter-over-quarter in the third quarter.
The price increase for LPDDR5X memory is particularly noticeable: contract prices for 12GB modules, after almost tripling since the beginning of 2025, have reached approximately $145 per unit, increasing by almost $69 since the beginning of 2026 alone.
Samsung's operating profit in the second quarter of 2026 is expected to be around 84.6 trillion won (approximately $55.1 billion). If the forecast is confirmed, the South Korean giant will surpass NVIDIA's first-quarter figure of $53.54 billion and become the world's most profitable company by quarterly operating profit.
Meanwhile, Samsung and SK hynix have already launched a large-scale memory production expansion program worth about $800 billion. However, significant new capacity will only become available by 2033, so high prices for DRAM and NAND are likely to persist for many years as long as demand from the AI industry remains high.