The Most Profitable Company Is... Samsung?

Samsung Electronics reported a record operating profit of $58 billion for the second quarter of 2026, nearly 20 times higher than the same period last year, driven by surging demand for memory chips used in AI data centers. The South Korean tech giant's revenue more than doubled to about $112 billion, surpassing its combined earnings for 2024 and 2025.

The Most Profitable Company Is... Samsung? Move over Jensen, there's a new profit king in town. Well, in South Korea. It was just six weeks ago when NVIDIA once again reported blockbuster earnings to the tune of $53.5B in operating profit in a single quarter. I had AI use some NVIDIA chips to figure out that this was an all-time record for such profit in corporate America https://spyglass.org/nvidia-profit/ ,1 beating out even the longtime profit king, Apple. Well, that record didn't last long – and again, didn't stay in America. Here's Daisuke Wakabayashi and Jason Karaian reporting for The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/06/business/samsung-earnings-chips.html?ref=spyglass.org : Samsung Electronics said that its latest quarterly operating profit was nearly 20 times higher than last year’s, spurred by a seemingly insatiable demand for memory chips used in data centers for artificial intelligence. The preliminary results for April through June, announced by the South Korean tech giant on Tuesday, underscore how the staggering investments that companies are making to build computing infrastructure for A.I. continue to propel earnings for memory chip makers to record levels. Samsung said it generated an operating profit of 89.4 trillion South Korean won, or roughly $58 billion, in the second quarter. That was well above the 4.7 trillion won it earned in the same quarter last year, and more than it earned in 2024 and 2025 combined. The company’s revenue also more than doubled in the quarter, to about $112 billion. No, that's not a typo, let alone many of them. Samsung's operating profit jumped almost 20x year-on-year. $58B. More than it earned in 2024 and 2025, combined . Crazier still, it could have been more From the Reuters report https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/samsung-estimates-19-fold-rise-q2-operating-profit-beating-expectations-2026-07-06/?ref=spyglass.org on the numbers: Samsung posted better-than-expected earnings despite bonus-related provisions, as memory prices rose sharply," said Lee Min-hee, an analyst at BNK Investment & Securities. Without those provisions, its operating profit would likely have exceeded 100 trillion won, analysts said. 100 trillion won is over $65B.2 Yes, per South Korean market reporting norms, the numbers are preliminary with final ones due on July 30 . Still. As recently as 2023, Samsung had reported $5B in operating income – for the year . Yes, this one quarter is over 10x all of 2023. Of course, that year was an outlier. Why? Memory chips It was a downturn in that market – just three years ago – that ate nearly all of Samsung's profit. Now, of course, it's those very same chips which are fueling these incredible numbers. Outside of 2023, normally Samsung makes between $25B to $50B a year in operating profit. Again, they just topped that in a single quarter . Because whereas Samsung used to be a consumer electronic company – and like Apple, mainly a smartphone company https://spyglass.org/apple-services-business-iphone/ – now they're mainly a memory chip company. If Apple has spent the past 20 years trying to figure out what, if anything https://spyglass.org/apples-amazing-iphone-problem/ , can move their fiscal needle after the iPhone, well, Samsung stumbled into it And I do mean stumbled because up until very recently https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/samsung-profit-tumbles-struggles-catch-011005933.html?ref=spyglass.org , their chip division was a massive problem for the company. They simply could not compete with the likes of TSMC as a fab and SK Hynix on memory. Now, thanks to massive supply constraints, all three are amongst the most valuable companies https://spyglass.org/inklings-the-ai-pandemic-samsung-hits-1t-supreme-court-rejects-apple-anthropic-spacex-airpods-with-cameras-openais-aim-to-own-vocal-computing-google-gunning-for-openclaw-anthropics-colo/ :~:text=Technology%20Review%5D-,%F0%9F%93%88%20Samsung%20Hits%20%241T,-%E2%80%93%20What%27s%20wild%20is in the world.3 Maybe, just maybe, Apple should get more into the chip business https://spyglass.org/apple-xpus/ ? They are for themselves, of course. But that doesn't make money at least not directly as much as it saves them money and yes, helps to differentiate their products . Imagine if Apple had a memory chip business? I'm sure Tim Cook wishes that was an investment he had made a decade or two ago right about now https://spyglass.org/apple-price-changes/ ... Of course, the business will undoubtedly bust again at some point https://spyglass.org/over-the-ai-rainbow/ . And even with these incredible numbers, Samsung's stock is actually down around 10% at the moment because analysts were expecting even larger numbers So there's probably no champagne at Samsung today despite these results – especially lest someone think the cork pop is the sound of the AI bubble bursting https://spyglass.org/ai-bubble/ . Previously, on Spyglass ... 1 And I note "corporate America" simply because Saudi Aramco muddies this picture a bit – specifically one quarter in 2022 when the war in Ukraine led to an oil price spike that boosted their operating profits to the moon – perhaps to nearly $100B. Of course, much of that money immediately flows back to the government, so it's a... different world. 2 Is that employee profit share agreement https://spyglass.org/oliver/ :~:text=%F0%9F%92%B0%20Samsung%27s%20Bonus%20Situation about to be renegotiated again? 3 To be clear and fair, Samsung's fab business is still somewhat problematic, and perhaps lost money in this incredible quarter due to the aforementioned bonus payouts. But it's without question a good strategic business for Samsung to be in at the moment. Just ask Intel