Which company has the world’s highest earnings? The answer may surprise you Ayushman Ojha Sun, October 18, 2026 at 3:48 AM EDT 2 min read 005930.KS +2.62% NVDA -1.43% Trade NVIDIA on Coinbase Trading disclosure Trading disclosure The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.
Investing.com-- Samsung Electronics (KS:005930) has overtaken Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) in quarterly operating profit, with its booming memory-chip business poised to drive further growth amid surging demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Samsung reported third-quarter operating profit of 107.4 trillion won ($75 billion), up 783% from a year earlier and 20% from the previous quarter.
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The figure exceeded Nvidia's estimated operating profit of 97 trillion won for the same period, making Samsung the world's largest quarterly operating profit generator.
KB Securities analysts maintained their "buy" rating on Samsung, with a target price of 600,000 won, arguing that the stock's valuation failed to reflect its earnings potential.
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The brokerage forecast fourth-quarter operating profit of 114 trillion won, including 113 trillion won from its memory business, which includes dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) and NAND flash chips.
Samsung's earnings growth could accelerate further in 2027 as prices for high-bandwidth memory (HBM), used in AI accelerators, rise. KB Securities expects average selling prices for HBM to increase by more than 100% year-on-year, supported by premium pricing for its next-generation HBM4 products.
Analysts also expect Samsung to expand shareholder returns through dividends and share cancellations.
Based on 110 trillion won in resources remaining under its current three-year shareholder-return programme, the company could distribute 70 trillion to 80 trillion won in cash dividends and cancel shares worth 30 trillion to 40 trillion won, they said.
KB Securities argued that Samsung's low forward price-to-earnings multiple, at about four times, was difficult to justify given its earnings outlook and potential shareholder payouts. The brokerage sees stronger returns to shareholders as a possible catalyst for a valuation re-rating.
Which company has the world's highest earnings? The answer may surprise you
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