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Investing.com -- Buy-rated Samsung Electronics is poised for “structural earnings growth” as the shortage of HBM and DRAM is expected to persist through 2027, according to a note from KB Securities.
KB raised its target price for Samsung by 18% to 130,000 won, calling it the firm’s “top pick among Korea semiconductors.”
The brokerage said the “memory chip shortage should persist through 2027 as AI data center capex is projected to jump 5x by 2030 amid absence of meaningful chip capacity increases until the Pyeongtaek P5 line and Yongin cluster become operational in 2028.”
Analyst Jeff Kim explained that Samsung is “benefiting directly from NVIDIA/OpenAI’s increasing HBM needs,” and that “1c DRAM yield improvements enable full-scale HBM4 shipments from 2026.”
As a result, KB revised its 2026 operating profit forecast up 20% to 64 trillion won, the highest level in eight years.
Samsung’s preliminary third-quarter operating profit was 12.1 trillion won, “marking the highest quarterly performance since 3Q22 and beating the consensus by 19%,” KB said.
It expects fourth-quarter profit of 12.5 trillion won and 2026 profit to reach 64.2 trillion won, “the highest since 2018, on DRAM margin improvements and increased foundry utilization.”
KB added that it expects the legacy chip shortage to intensify “because SEC is likely to focus Pyeongtaek P4 investments on HBM4, foundry and NAND in 2026.”
It forecast Samsung’s HBM revenue to triple in 2026, driving the company’s transition “from recovery to structural growth” as “the market is at a turning point.”