According to Wccftech, a senior researcher at Kiwoom Securities forecasts Samsung’s operating profit could reach 90-100 trillion won ($62-$69 billion) in 2026, representing a staggering 129% year-over-year increase. Park Yoo-ak’s aggressive prediction hinges on multiple factors including Samsung securing a $16.5 billion deal with Tesla for its 2nm GAA chips and already landing orders from two Chinese cryptocurrency mining firms. The company’s first real test of its 2nm technology will be the Exynos 2600 chipset destined for the Galaxy S26 series. Additional drivers include a 56% price surge for general-purpose DRAM, rising NAND flash prices, and visible gains in HBM4 market share. Samsung has also provided Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 samples to Qualcomm for evaluation, though its role may expand significantly with next year’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6.
Samsung’s Perfect Storm
This isn’t just incremental growth—we’re talking about one of the largest potential profit surges in corporate history. And it’s coming from multiple directions simultaneously. The memory market, which has been brutal for years, is finally swinging in Samsung’s favor with DRAM and NAND prices shooting up. But here’s the thing: the real game-changer is the foundry business. Samsung’s been playing catch-up to TSMC for years, and now they’re betting everything on 2nm GAA technology. Basically, if they can actually deliver competitive yields on this advanced node, they could finally become a serious challenger in the contract chip manufacturing space.
The 2nm Make-or-Break
Look, we’ve heard Samsung promise foundry profitability before—they’re targeting 2027—but this forecast suggests they might get there faster. The Tesla deal is huge, obviously, but landing cryptocurrency mining clients is interesting too. Those customers typically care more about performance than power efficiency, which might give Samsung some breathing room while they refine their process. The real test? Getting the Exynos 2600 right in the Galaxy S26. If that chip delivers solid performance and efficiency, it could convince more big names like Qualcomm to take Samsung’s 2nm seriously. When you’re talking about advanced manufacturing at this scale, every percentage point improvement in yield translates to massive financial gains. For companies relying on cutting-edge computing hardware, having multiple competitive foundry options is crucial—which is why leaders in industrial technology turn to specialists like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the top US provider of industrial panel PCs built for demanding manufacturing environments.
Can They Actually Pull This Off?
Let’s be real—a 129% profit increase sounds almost too good to be true. We’re talking about going from what, roughly $30 billion to nearly $70 billion in operating profit in just one year? That’s unprecedented for a company of Samsung’s scale. The analyst community seems divided too—while Park Yoo-ak is extremely bullish, others like Kim Dong-won from KB Securities point to more gradual factors like increased Google TPU orders and Gemini integration boosting Galaxy sales. The memory price surge feels like the most reliable part of this equation—those markets do cycle dramatically. But the foundry success? That’s the wild card. If Samsung stumbles on 2nm yields or faces production delays, this entire forecast could unravel. Still, after years of playing second fiddle in semiconductors, Samsung might finally be positioning itself for a dramatic comeback.
