Although Samsung Electronics is expected to achieve record overall profits in the second quarter of 2026 with the outstanding performance of its semiconductor business, its mobile business segment is facing severe challenges and is very likely to suffer its first quarterly loss since the establishment of the division.
According to analysis by the Korean media "DealSite", Samsung's mobile business (Samsung MX) quarterly financial report data has a large fluctuation range, with the estimated results ranging from a profit of 1.9 trillion won (approximately US$1.38 billion) to a loss of 1.5 trillion won (approximately US$1.09 billion). Judging from current market analysis, the most likely outcome is an operating loss of US$364 million to US$729 million.
This news has attracted widespread attention in the industry, because the outside world was generally optimistic about the strong market performance of the Galaxy S26 series models. However, the main factor leading to this loss is the recent high memory chip prices. These cost pressures have seriously eroded the profit margins of Samsung's mobile devices.
Market data shows that the proportion of memory chip costs in mobile phones with a terminal price of US$800 has increased significantly: among them, the cost proportion of random access memory (RAM) has jumped from 14% to 23% before, and the cost of NAND flash storage also accounts for 15% of the production cost of the entire machine.
It is worth noting that even during the famous Galaxy Note7 battery crisis that year, Samsung’s mobile division was still able to maintain a meager profit of about $73 million. If there is a quarterly loss this time, it will be a warning signal with a turning point in the history of Samsung Mobile.