Samsung seems to have found a very elegant way to cash in on a brutal scale. Its semiconductor division, the same one that manufactures memories and chips for the AI ​​era, is about to generate more profits in 2026 than it accumulated in its entire previous history of about 40 years in the business, a very clear sign of the extent to which the chip boom is rewriting the map of the technology sector.

Samsung has its own money making machine

The most striking thing is not only that the chip division is growing, but that it is doing so with a speed that borders on the absurd. Samsung's DS division president Kim Yong-Kwan said in an internal meeting that this year's operating profit will surpass anything the semiconductor business has earned since it entered the market four decades ago.

The magnitude of the figure helps to understand why everyone is looking at Samsung with a surprised face. Analyst consensus puts the company's total operating profit for 2026 at around 300 trillion won, or about $196 billion, while the second quarter alone points to about 84.6 trillion won, equivalent to $55.1 billion. In other words, we are talking about numbers that no longer sound like a good quarter, but rather a real profit factory.

Chip business dominates

The key is that the DS division has become Samsung's great engine. In the first quarter of 2026, it contributed 53.7 trillion won of the group's total operating profit of 57.2 trillion won, a share close to 94%. In simpler terms, practically everything Samsung earned in that period came from the semiconductor business.

That dominance is no coincidence. Demand for AI server memory has pushed up DRAM and NAND prices throughout 2026, and that has sent chipmakers' margins soaring. Tom's Hardware notes that Samsung is selling 12GB LPDDR5X modules for around $145 and is even negotiating new increases for conventional memory in the third quarter, while supply remains tight at least until 2027. When the market tightens like this, the business stops looking like just another industrial line and starts to behave like a cash printer.

Astronomical revenue figures in 2026 thanks to chips

The tone of the figures is already from another planet. Samsung posted about $58.5 billion in preliminary profit for the recent quarter, even above Nvidia's last big quarterly result, which stood at $53.54 billion. That comparison says a lot about the moment the industry is going through, because we are not talking about just any company, but about the type of results that normally mark the global conversation about technology.

Samsung's quarterly profits grew 19-fold to $58 billion in preliminary operating income. Furthermore, that same report highlights that the shares did not react with enthusiasm, precisely because the market has already become accustomed to gigantic figures in the world of AI and chips. That's another sign of how huge this business has become in 2026.

A new era for Samsung

The interesting thing is that this explosion does not redefine Samsung as a whole, but above all its silicon heart. The 40-year comparison refers to the chip business, not the entire conglomerate, as other areas such as mobile phones, displays and home appliances have generated more cumulative profits over time. Even so, the message is powerful, because it shows that the processor and memory division is no longer a strategic support, but rather the financial center of gravity of the group.

What is happening with Samsung in 2026 summarizes the new AI economy very well. Whoever controls the memory, supply and manufacturing capacity for data centers is capturing a huge portion of the value, and Samsung is well positioned to do so. That is why the general feeling is as clear as it is uncomfortable for its rivals: at this moment, Samsung is not just selling chips, it is monetizing the rise of artificial intelligence with almost surgical efficiency.