Samsung forecasts ~780% Q3 profit jump on AI memory, forms $1B data center venture with NVIDIA and KKR

Samsung's preliminary Q3 guidance shows how much the AI memory boom is benefiting chipmakers. High-bandwidth memory and server DRAM shipments drove the profit forecast. Reporting of the exact figure differs: one source gives 10.74 trillion won, while the DailyStar figure of 107.4 trillion won matches the stated 782.5% year-over-year growth.

The same price spike hurts Samsung's own phones. Sequential DRAM increases of 13–18% compressed Mobile eXperience margins, with an estimated handset operating loss of up to 1.8 trillion won. The memory division keeps shifting capacity toward enterprise AI and HBM.

Samsung is also moving up the stack. It is part of a $1B partnership with NVIDIA and KKR's Helix fund, investing $500M in integrated AI data center infrastructure. Separately, the group announced an internal 'AI transformation' that opens employee access to Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude after earlier restrictions.

Community threads on soaring RTX 5090 prices point to the same supply squeeze: AI demand is raising the price of memory and GPUs for everyone. Watch whether consumer device pricing absorbs the DRAM cost increases into Q4.