Samsung profit nearly ninefold as Alphabet shares slide and Asian stocks dip

Samsung's quarter and the chip boom

Samsung Electronics reported its third-quarter 2026 results early on Thursday, 29 October. Net profit reached 75.13 trillion won (about 50.5 billion euros), up 514.6% on a year earlier, according to figures the company published on its website. Operating profit rose to 107.4 trillion won (about 72.3 billion euros), close to nine times the level of a year earlier and above 100 trillion won for the first time, the company said. Revenue totalled 195.2 trillion won (about 131 billion euros).

Samsung attributed the memory division's new record quarter to its focus on AI-related products, despite capacity constraints. Demand for servers, the company said, pushed market prices higher across all segments. Demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, which AI systems require, is the main driver. Samsung expects demand for semiconductors to exceed supply in 2027 as well, and it announced a dividend payout of roughly 20 billion euros, according to DIE WELT.

Revenue195.2

Operating profit107.4

Net profit75.13

Revenue

195.2 trillion won

Operating profit

107.4 trillion won

Net profit

75.13 trillion won

Data from the article text

Shares fall despite strong numbers

Investors had expected still more from Samsung, and its shares fell more than four percent after the release. Handelsblatt put the drop at 4.13% in Asian trading and noted that net profit missed analyst forecasts. The reaction across the region was mixed. Advantest rose 5.4% after lifting its full-year operating profit forecast by 14%. Hitachi fell 8.7% despite raising its profit outlook. SK Hynix kept a gain of 1.14%, while Tokyo Electron slipped 0.9% and SoftBank Group 0.6%. The MSCI index for Asian stocks excluding Japan lost 0.7%.

Advantest5.4%

SK Hynix1.14%

Tokyo Electron-0.9%

SoftBank Group-0.6%

Samsung Electronics-4.13%

Hitachi-8.7%

Advantest

5.4 %

SK Hynix

1.14 %

Tokyo Electron

-0.9 %

SoftBank Group

-0.6 %

Samsung Electronics

-4.13 %

Hitachi

-8.7 %

Data from the article text

Microsoft and Alphabet results

Microsoft started its new fiscal year well ahead of expectations. Revenue rose almost a fifth to 92.3 billion dollars, and profit climbed 32% to 36.6 billion dollars. Growth in the Azure cloud business stayed strong, and capital spending came in lower than analysts had expected. Microsoft shares rose more than four percent after hours, approaching their previous record high.

Alphabet's quarterly revenue grew about 25% to 127.6 billion dollars, but the company came in slightly below expectations. Search advertising grew more slowly than hoped. New AI features bring more searches, but the ads shown alongside them have so far earned less than ads in classic search. Cloud revenue grew strongly. Handelsblatt reported that Alphabet shares fell about ten percent after hours, wiping almost 400 billion dollars off the company's market value, while watson put the decline at about nine percent.

Outlook ahead of Japan's earnings week

Hundreds of Japanese companies are due to publish results on Thursday and Friday, and the Bank of Japan is expected to announce its interest rate decision on Friday. Maki Sawada, a strategist at Nomura Securities, said the market may be showing some nervousness ahead of those events, and that investors may be adopting a risk-averse stance. Strong growth alone no longer satisfies investors, who expect companies to beat forecasts that are already high. Asian markets opened with gains before giving them back, leaving the sector's direction uncertain for the rest of the week.