Memory is not cooling down yet! Multiple South Korean securities firms raise Samsung's target price: 2027 profits will exceed Nvidia

The AI wave is driving a dramatic surge in memory demand. Coupled with the ongoing widening of supply shortages, Korean semiconductor giant Samsung Electronics has just released impressive financial results, and multiple securities firms expect that two companies’ combined operating profit in the first quarter of 2026 will come close to the 100 trillion won mark, actively raising their stock price targets. SK hynix’s share price jumped 12.7% today, outperforming Samsung’s 7.12%.

(Trump announces a two-week pause on attacks against Iran! Korean stocks surge nearly 7%, triggering a circuit breaker—Samsung and SK hynix rocket higher)

Samsung Electronics’ quarterly profit hits a new high for any Korean company; price targets rise as high as 360k won

Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) announced its first-quarter financial report on the 7th. Revenue reached 133 trillion won, up 68% year over year. Operating profit more than quadrupled nearly eightfold to 57.2 trillion won, setting a record for the highest quarterly profit ever for a Korean company. Fueled by this positive news, Samsung’s stock price closed up 1.76% yesterday, and today surged again to 210.5k won, with a daily gain of 7.12%.

(Samsung profit up 755%! DRAM quotes reportedly rise another 100%, and 32 GB memory could jump past $400)

According to the Chosun Ilbo, after the financial report was released, KB Securities raised its Samsung Electronics target stock price significantly from 320k won to 360k won. Daol Investment & Securities and Korea Investment & Securities also raised their targets to 350k won and 330k won, respectively.

KB Securities’ research department head Dongwon Kim said, “Samsung Electronics’ current market cap is only 19% of Nvidia’s and 57% of TSMC’s. Given the backdrop of rapid profit growth, this valuation is highly attractive.”

KB: In 2027, Samsung will surpass Nvidia and become the global leader in operating profit

Worth noting is that KB Securities forecasts that Samsung Electronics’ full-year operating profit in 2027 will reach 488 trillion won—just enough to surpass Nvidia’s 485 trillion won by a small margin—catapulting Samsung to the top spot on the global operating profit ranking. By comparison, tech giants such as Alphabet, Apple, and Microsoft have profit figures that are all less than half of Samsung’s, fully reflecting the core position of the semiconductor industry in the AI era.

KB Securities’ estimate of the top 11 global companies by operating profit in 2027. Source: @jukan05

Meritz Securities researcher Sunwoo Kim emphasized that the significance of this standout financial report lies not only in the numbers themselves, but also in the fact that Samsung is currently in the “mid-phase” of the memory business cycle, not at the peak. He predicts that between the fourth quarter of 2026 and the second quarter of 2027, when sales and production expand in step, profits will see a explosive second leap.

(Can you still buy memory stocks after they crash? Samsung securities analyst: correction within the cycle, not a peak in the business cycle)

SK hynix price target up to 1.8 million won; profit margin tops the world

Another major memory heavyweight, SK hynix (000660.KS), has also attracted strong attention. Korea Investment & Securities raised its target share price from 1.5 million won to 1.8 million won. Analyst Minsuk Chae expects SK hynix’s first-quarter DRAM operating profit margin to rise by 10.4 percentage points from the previous quarter to 75.4%.

Shinhan Securities also raised its SK hynix target price from 1.3 million won to 1.5 million won, and expects first-quarter revenue to reach 50 trillion won, with operating profit exceeding 35 trillion won. The analyst also stressed that the price-increase trend for DRAM and NAND flash memory is stronger than expected, and as profitability of memory products across the board accelerates improving, each quarter is expected to set new profit highs.

Driven by Samsung’s news, SK hynix’s share price rose 3.39% to close on the 7th, and surged even more today, up 12.77%, closing at 360k won. After 10 trading days, it returned to the one-million-won range.

AI-driven memory demand; Korea’s semiconductor powerhouse position continues to strengthen

As demand continues to surge for AI servers, high-bandwidth memory (HBM), and data center construction, many securities firms believe Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are positioned squarely in the strongest upward wave of the memory business cycle. Not only are the two companies refreshing historical records in absolute profit size, but their strategic standing in the global tech industry continues to rise as well. For investors, there may be substantial room to imagine further growth going forward.

This article Memory is still not “cooling off”! Multiple South Korean securities firms raise Samsung’s target price: Samsung’s profits in 2027 will exceed Nvidia. First appeared on Chain News ABMedia.