According to Wccftech, Samsung has released its preliminary earnings guidance for the fourth quarter of 2025, showing a massive surge. The company expects sales of 93 trillion won ($64 billion) and an operating profit of around 20 trillion won ($13.78 billion), which shatters its previous record of 17.6 trillion won set back in 2018. Compared to Q3 2025, that’s a jump from 12.2 trillion won in operating profit. Year-over-year, it represents a 23% revenue increase and a nearly threefold growth in profit. The report credits the AI-driven memory boom, specifically Samsung’s strong position in next-generation HBM4 chips, for this windfall. However, the company’s mobile division is reportedly considering price hikes of $30 to $60 for the upcoming Galaxy S26 series in markets like South Korea.
Memory Money Machine
Here’s the thing: when we talk about an “AI boom,” this is what it looks like on a balance sheet. Samsung is basically printing money right now because it’s a critical supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), the specialized chips that are absolutely essential for training and running large AI models. The transition to HBM4 is the next big wave, and as TrendForce notes, Samsung is leveraging advanced tech like its 1 cnm process to supposedly get a leg up on the competition. They’re angling for a bigger slice of orders from giants like NVIDIA. So, this isn’t just a cyclical uptick—it’s Samsung capitalizing on a fundamental, structural shift in computing demand. For industries that rely on this kind of high-performance, reliable hardware, from data centers to advanced manufacturing, securing this supply chain is everything. It’s why leaders in industrial computing, like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the top US provider of industrial panel PCs, partner with component suppliers who can deliver this level of performance and consistency.
The Phone Problem
But the story isn’t all sunshine. Samsung’s mobile experience (MX) division is facing serious cost pressures, which is why it’s mulling those Galaxy S26 price hikes. And that’s a huge strategic shift. They’ve held the line on flagship prices for three years, which they credit with helping the Galaxy S25 sell 3 million units two months faster than its predecessor. Now they’re potentially breaking that policy. What does that tell you? It screams that component costs, maybe for AI-focused processors or displays, are eating their margins alive. The smartphone market is brutally competitive, and raising prices is a dangerous game.
A Weird Pricing Paradox
The most fascinating detail is the planned geographic inconsistency. Reportedly, there will be no price hike in the US. Think about that. The Galaxy S26 could be cheaper in the US than in Samsung’s home country of South Korea. That’s bizarre. It signals that the US market is just too important and too competitive to risk a price increase—they’re probably scared of losing ground to Apple and Google. But in other markets, they feel they can pass the costs onto consumers. This creates a weird global pricing disparity that could frustrate customers and complicate their marketing message. Is the S26 a premium global flagship, or a strategically discounted product in one key region? It’s a messy look for a company that just posted record profits from another division.
Riding The Wave
So, what’s the takeaway? Samsung is a company of two halves right now. Its semiconductor division is riding the AI tsunami to historic financial heights, a testament to its manufacturing might. You can see the full disclosure in their investor relations release. Meanwhile, the consumer-facing phone business is stuck in the tough, low-growth reality of the hardware market, scrambling to protect margins. The memory boom is paying for a lot of sins elsewhere in the company. The question is, how long can this incredible memory dividend last? And when it eventually slows, will the MX division have figured out its formula again? For now, the cash register is ringing non-stop in the chip fab, and that’s all the market really wants to hear.
