Samsung Electronics expects 2026 capital expenditure of approximately 84.4 trillion Korean won, including about 76.8 trillion won for its semiconductor division, following third-quarter results released on 29 October, TradingKey reported. Samsung’s HBM4 supply for 2027 is already booked, Wccftech reported from the company’s earnings call.
Key points
- Samsung expects approximately 84.4 trillion won in capital spending this year, with about 76.8 trillion won allocated to Device Solutions.
- Third-quarter revenue reached 195.3 trillion won, up 14% from the preceding quarter.
- Samsung says long-term agreements with 10 customers cover 60–70% of total production capacity.
- The company plans to begin mass production of HBM4E in the first half of 2027.
Device Solutions takes 76.8 trillion won
Most of Samsung’s projected spending is assigned to Device Solutions, the semiconductor business. The company expects the division’s approximately 76.8 trillion won allocation to go primarily towards new wafer fabrication plants and capacity for AI and high-performance computing, according to TradingKey. The full-year figure is a projection rather than spending already completed.
The scale of the plan follows a quarter in which Samsung reported revenue of 195.3 trillion won, 14% higher than in the previous quarter. Operating profit reached 107.4 trillion won, approximately 8.8 times the level a year earlier. TradingKey put Device Solutions’ revenue at 147.1 trillion won and its operating profit at 106.5 trillion won for the quarter.
TradingKey linked the semiconductor division’s growth to HBM4 and server SSD sales. Samsung said HBM4 sales had expanded and demand for server SSDs remained strong.
Beyond memory, Samsung expects orders for its 2nm foundry process to more than double in 2026 from the previous year, Wccftech reported. The company plans mass production for major customers using that process in the second half of 2026. TradingKey reported that Samsung expects double-digit foundry revenue growth in the fourth quarter.
Ten customers secure Samsung capacity
Samsung says it has signed long-term memory supply agreements with 10 large customers. Those agreements cover 60–70% of its total production capacity, Wccftech reported. The company says customers seeking longer-term supply now extend beyond hyperscalers to mobile, automotive and networking businesses. The agreements give those buyers an allocation of production while Samsung invests in additional capacity.
An earlier AI Affairs report on a KB Securities estimate put Samsung’s agreements at about 80% of its 2027 memory output. Samsung’s earnings-call figure covers 60–70% of total production capacity, rather than the analyst’s measure of memory output for a specified year.
Other memory producers are also securing buyers ahead of production. AI Affairs reported that SK Hynix had secured capacity for 14 buyers and expected memory shortages to continue through 2030. Samsung expects shortages to worsen in 2027 and supply constraints to persist into 2028.
HBM4E production is planned for 2027
Samsung’s booked HBM4 supply for 2027 comes as it continues to increase production of that generation of high-bandwidth memory. Jaejune Kim, executive vice-president of memory global sales and marketing at Samsung, said larger dies and more metal process layers in subsequent HBM generations would constrain the number of memory bits the company can produce. He also pointed to production shifting from conventional DRAM to HBM.
Samsung expects its higher capital expenditure to have limited effect on growth in memory-bit production. The company also expects demand for server memory to continue as new CPU and GPU platforms arrive. For storage, it plans to focus on products including server SSDs and high-density QLC SSDs.
Samsung plans to begin mass production of HBM4E in the first half of 2027 and increase production volume in the second half, Kim said during the earnings call.
