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.