FX.co ★ Samsung surpasses Nvidia as world’s most profitable company

South Korea’s Samsung Electronics has quietly overtaken investor darling Nvidia to become the world’s most profitable company.

Operating profit at the Korean giant surged by 783% year‑on‑year in the third quarter to 107.4 trillion won (about $75 billion), compared with roughly 97 trillion won at Nvidia for the same period. The practical reason is straightforward: AI infrastructure consumes vast amounts of memory, and Samsung is the dominant supplier.

KB Securities analysts expect this financial boom to continue. They forecast the company’s fourth‑quarter operating profit of about 114 trillion won. Moreover, they see room for further acceleration in 2027 as constrained supply could push prices for high‑bandwidth memory (HBM4) used in AI accelerators up by more than 100%.

Despite Samsung’s profit leadership, its shares trade at an unusually low forward P/E of about 4. Analysts retain a “buy” rating with a 600,000 won target, banking on hefty returns to shareholders. Of the roughly 110 trillion won of cash on the company’s balance sheet, Samsung is expected to distribute 70-80 trillion won in cash dividends and deploy another 30-40 trillion won on a large buyback to finally lift its share price.