AI NewsWaveSamsung Electronics Q3 Earnings Call: HBM4 Sales Triple, Memory Shortage Through 2028
Key points
- Q3 HBM4 sales more than triple the previous quarter
- Next year's HBM volume negotiations done, long-term contracts expanding
- Memory shortage expected through 2028
Samsung Electronics pointed to strong demand in its memory business on its 2026 third-quarter earnings conference call on the 29th. Digital Today reported that demand continues to outpace supply. According to Chosun Biz, third-quarter HBM4 sales grew more than threefold from the previous quarter, and HBM4's share of total HBM sales rose to about 60%. Samsung also set a goal of securing an HBM market share on par with its share of the overall DRAM market.
The scale of earnings was also large. TechM reported that Samsung became the first ICT company in the world to surpass 100 trillion won in operating profit in the third quarter, and Digital Daily said in its headline that operating profit reached 107 trillion won. In the same report, Digital Daily said the DX division posted an 800 billion won loss due to cost pressure.
Outlets described the situation on securing next year's volumes differently. iNews24 reported that Samsung has sold all of next year's HBM volume at its target price and is still receiving additional supply requests from customers, that the number of large customers with long-term memory supply contracts has grown to 10, and that it is negotiating with 10 others. Digital Daily wrote that negotiations on 2027 HBM supply volumes are already complete and that 2-nanometer order projects are more than double the previous year's. TechM also reported that HBM contracts have been completed through 2027 supply volumes.
The supply shortage outlook extends to 2028. Chosun Biz reported that Samsung forecast the shortage will continue through 2028 as surging memory demand from expanded AI infrastructure investment and the spread of personal AI agents. iNews24 reported that Samsung expects the larger chip area and more manufacturing steps of next-generation HBM to also limit production growth. On the product roadmap, EBN reported that HBM4E will enter mass production in the first half of next year, with output scaling up in earnest from the second half. Chosun Biz said demand for server DRAM and high-performance, high-capacity SSDs is growing quickly as agentic AI services spread, and its headline said a 256TB SSD will be released next year.
SK hynix reported its third-quarter results a day earlier. EBN reported that SK hynix posted a record quarterly operating profit in the 83 trillion won range, helped by surging AI memory demand and higher DRAM prices. According to another EBN earnings call report, SK hynix said the volume requested by HBM customers is about twice what it can actually supply.
Glossary HBM (high bandwidth memory) is memory that stacks multiple DRAM chips vertically to widen the data pathway, and it is mainly used in AI accelerators.