Samsung Statistics 2026: Revenue, Market Share & AI Chip Surge

The Samsung statistics that matter for 2026 split cleanly into two stories. Samsung Electronics closed 2025 with record annual revenue of ₩333.61 trillion (about $233.3 billion), up 10.9% year-over-year, and then opened 2026 with a quarter in which semiconductor operating profit grew 48-fold year-over-year to ₩53.7 trillion (around $36.18 billion). That chip-cycle boom briefly turned the conglomerate into a memory company with a smartphone side business.

Key Takeaways

• Samsung’s Q1 2026 consolidated revenue reached ₩133.9 trillion (approximately $91 billion), up 69% year-over-year, the company’s strongest quarter on record.
• The semiconductor division accounted for roughly 94% of total operating profit in Q1 2026, reframing Samsung’s profit center around memory rather than handsets.
• Samsung shipped 62.4 million smartphones in Q1 2026 with a 21.2% global share, narrowly leading Apple at 61.8 million units and 21.0% share per IDC.
• Samsung held a 29.1% share of the global TV market in 2025, marking 20 consecutive years as the world’s No.1 TV brand.
• Samsung’s 2025 R&D spending reached ₩37.7 trillion (around $25.55 billion), up 7.8% year-over-year, with most of the increase routed to high-bandwidth memory development.
• Samsung employed 262,647 people globally as of 2024, with 125,297 based in Korea and 88,984 working in R&D roles.

Editor’s Choice

• FY 2025 operating profit jumped 33.2% to ₩43.60 trillion ($30.5 billion); net income climbed 31.2% to ₩45.21 trillion ($31.6 billion).
• Memory Business sales rose 101% sequentially and 292% year-over-year in Q1 2026, driven by AI-server demand for HBM and DDR5.
• Samsung’s market capitalization reached $1.185 trillion in May 2026, ranking it the world’s 11th most valuable company.
• Interbrand’s 2024 Best Global Brands report placed Samsung’s brand value at $100.8 billion, in the top five globally, a 10% year-over-year gain.
• Samsung commanded a 54.3% share of TVs priced over $2,500 and 52.2% of TVs priced over $1,500 in 2025.
• Samsung committed ₩52.7 trillion (around $35.7 billion) to facility investments in 2025, the largest single-year capex in company history.

Recent Developments

• Samsung launched the Galaxy S26 series on February 25, 2026, with general availability beginning March 11, 2026, across three SKUs.
• Samsung’s Q1 disclosure showed mobile sales of ₩37.5 trillion, up 4% year-over-year, despite Galaxy S26 timing.
• Counterpoint Research’s April 10, 2026, Q1 report logged Samsung shipments down 6% year-over-year, citing the delayed Galaxy S26 launch and weak entry-level performance.
• BrandFinance’s January 2026 Global 500 report logged Samsung brand value at $119.2 billion, up 8% year-over-year, but the company slipped from 6th to 8th in the global ranking.
• Per Omdia data, Samsung sold around 2 million OLED TVs in 2025, up 38.1% from 2024, narrowing the OLED gap with LG.

Samsung Annual Revenue and Profit

• FY 2025 consolidated revenue: ₩333.61 trillion ($233.3 billion), an all-time high and 10.9% year-over-year.
• FY 2025 operating profit: ₩43.60 trillion ($30.5 billion), up 33.2% year-over-year.
• FY 2025 net income: ₩45.21 trillion ($31.6 billion), up 31.2% year-over-year.
• Q1 2026 revenue: ₩133.9 trillion (approximately $91 billion), up 43% quarter-on-quarter and 69% year-on-year.
• Q4 2025 chip-making segment: operating profit ₩16.4 trillion ($11.5 billion) on revenue of ₩44.0 trillion.
• Q4 2025 display panel unit: operating profit ₩2.0 trillion on revenue of ₩9.5 trillion.
• Q4 2025 mobile division: operating profit ₩1.9 trillion on revenue of ₩29.3 trillion.
• Q4 2025 TV and home appliance division: operating loss of ₩600 billion amid pricing pressure.

The headline narrative for the period is the speed of the inflection. We’ve tracked Samsung quarterly disclosures for years; the magnitude of the Q1 2026 step-up, particularly with consolidated revenue up nearly 70% year-over-year, is unlike anything the company posted across the prior two memory super-cycles. Samsung itself said it expects server memory demand to remain strong into the second half of the year as hyperscalers continue to accommodate AI adoption.

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Samsung Smartphone Market Share

• IDC’s Q1 2026 tracker shows Samsung at 21.2% global share and 62.4 million units shipped.
• IDC’s Q1 2026 tracker shows Apple at 21.0% share and 61.8 million units, a 1.7 million unit gap behind Samsung.
• Counterpoint Research’s Q1 2026 tracker placed Apple first with a 21% share and Samsung second at 20%.
• Omdia’s Q1 2026 tracker put Samsung approximately 2 percentage points ahead of Apple, up from a 1-point gap in Q1 2025.
• Xiaomi placed third at 11.5% share and 33.8 million units per IDC.
• OPPO and vivo rounded out the IDC top five at 10.5% and 7.2% share, respectively.
• Total Q1 2026 global smartphone shipments fell 2.9% year-over-year to 293.8 million units per IDC, with memory supply constraints cited as the primary headwind.
• Samsung commands a 30.7% share of the global Android ecosystem and approximately 1.033 billion active phone users worldwide.

The three trackers don’t just disagree on a single percentage point; they disagree on who won the quarter. The split comes from how each firm counts channel sell-in versus sell-through and how it treats ODM volumes; the takeaway for readers is that Q1 2026 was effectively a tie at the top, not a clean win for either Apple or Samsung.

By the numbers: Per IDC’s Q1 2026 release dated May 12, 2026, Samsung shipped 62.4 million smartphones for a 21.2% share, narrowly edging Apple’s 61.8 million units and 21.0% share. Counterpoint’s separate Q1 tracker dated April 10, 2026 flipped the order. Apple 21%, Samsung 20%, because Counterpoint’s methodology weights different channels.

Samsung Smartphone Shipments by Quarter

• Samsung shipped 60.5 million smartphones in Q1 2025 and 57.5 million in Q2 2025 per IDC trackers.
• Q1 2026 IDC shipments came in at 62.4 million, down sequentially from peak Galaxy quarters.
• Counterpoint flagged Samsung’s Q1 2026 shipments as down 6% year-over-year, attributed to the delayed Galaxy S26 launch.
• Samsung holds a 19.9% share of the global smartphone market in mid-2025 based on aggregated IDC and Statista snapshots.
• The wider Q1 2026 market fell 6% year-over-year amid an industry memory crunch, per Counterpoint.
• Samsung commands approximately 30.7% market share within the Android ecosystem.
• Approximately 1.033 billion active Samsung phone users sit in the global install base, a moat the company built across two decades.
• Q1 2025 Samsung vs. Apple lead per Omdia was just 1 percentage point; Q1 2026 widened to roughly 2 points.

The headline-versus-trend reality is that even when Samsung “wins” a quarter on units, its underlying smartphone trajectory is flat-to-down versus the post-2019 peak. The company’s 2019 peak ran roughly 295 million units, well above the recent quarterly run-rates annualized.

Samsung Memory Chip Business (DRAM, NAND, HBM)

• Samsung’s Memory Business achieved record revenue in Q1 2026, with sales up 101% sequentially and 292% year-over-year.
• The Device Solutions semiconductor division accounted for roughly 94% of Samsung’s total Q1 2026 operating profit, an extreme concentration.
• The 48-fold year-over-year growth in semiconductor operating profit reflected AI-driven demand for HBM and high-density DDR5 server memory.
• Samsung’s 2025 R&D budget routed a substantial portion to HBM and DDR memory development, the company said, naming AMD, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Nvidia as target customers.
• Samsung shipped its first HBM4 batch the month before the update, moving the next-generation product into qualification.
• Samsung’s semiconductor division reported a 10.6% global semiconductor market share in 2024, with revenue of $66.5 billion, up 62.5% from $40.9 billion the prior year.
• Samsung expects server memory demand to remain strong into the second half of the year as hyperscalers continue to accommodate AI adoption.

Samsung Semiconductor Revenue and Operating Profit

• Samsung’s semiconductor sales rose 225% year-over-year in Q1 2026, the steepest reported growth across business segments.
• Semiconductor operating profit climbed from ₩1.1 trillion in Q1 2025 to ₩53.7 trillion in Q1 2026, the 48-fold reference figure.
• The Q4 2025 chip operation alone produced ₩16.4 trillion ($11.5 billion) in operating profit, setting up the Q1 2026 step-change.
• 2024 semiconductor revenue was $66.5 billion, a 62.5% increase from prior-year figures of $40.9 billion.
• Samsung’s 2024 semiconductor global market share reached 10.6%, the largest among memory-only suppliers.
• Samsung’s 2025 R&D and capex combined to approximately ₩90.4 trillion, summing the ₩37.7 trillion R&D figure and the ₩52.7 trillion facility spend.

Why it matters: Samsung’s Device Solutions segment posted Q1 2026 operating profit of ₩53.7 trillion (around $36.18 billion), accounting for roughly 94% of the company’s total quarterly operating profit per TweakTown’s read of the disclosure. The 48-fold year-over-year leap from ₩1.1 trillion in Q1 2025 reflects AI-server demand for HBM and high-density DDR5 memory.

Samsung TV Market Share and Premium Segment

• Samsung recorded a 29.1% share of the global TV market in 2025 per Omdia, marking 20 consecutive years as the world’s No.1 TV brand since 2006.
• Samsung led the premium segment priced over $2,500 with a 54.3% market share in 2025.
• Samsung held a 52.2% market share in the segment priced over $1,500 in 2025.
• Samsung sold approximately 2 million OLED TVs in 2025, up 38.1% from 2024, per Omdia, a faster growth rate than the overall TV category.
• Samsung’s OLED TV share reached 31% in 2025, making it the world’s second-largest OLED TV producer after LG Electronics.
• LG retained the OLED leadership position with around 52.4% share of the global OLED TV market.

The 20-year overall TV crown is the headline; the more useful number is the 31% OLED share. Samsung re-entered OLED only in 2022 and is already past 30%, the LG-Display-supplied panel agreement helped, and the gap to LG (around 21 points) is narrower than legacy OLED watchers expected.

Samsung R&D Spending and Capital Expenditure

• Samsung invested ₩37.7 trillion (around $25.55 billion) on R&D in 2025, 7.8% higher than in 2024.
• Samsung committed ₩52.7 trillion (around $35.7 billion) on facility investments in 2025, a $3.39 billion increase versus 2024.
• The capex was used to build upgraded semiconductor facilities, notably the NRD-K complex at the Giheung campus in Yongin, South Korea.
• A substantial portion of 2025 R&D targeted high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and DDR memory chip development for AI-server customers.
• Samsung announced plans to increase HBM chip development spending in 2026, having shipped its first HBM4 batch the previous month, per the company’s report.
• The 2025 R&D-to-revenue ratio works out to roughly 11.3% when computed against the FY 2025 revenue base.

Samsung Workforce and Employees by Region

• Samsung Electronics reported 262,647 total employees globally as of 2024, its most recent disclosed headcount baseline.
• Korea hosted 125,297 employees (roughly 48% of the global workforce).
• Asia ex-Korea (Southeast Asia, Southwest Asia, China, Japan) accounted for 95,501 employees.
• North America and Latin America combined had 25,100 employees.
• Europe accounted for 11,500 employees; CIS 788; Middle East and Africa 4,461.
• Development (R&D) personnel totaled 88,984 employees, roughly one-third of the global workforce.
• Women comprise 33.1% of Samsung’s total workforce, 41.9% of working-level positions, 18.2% of manager-level positions, and 7.4% of executive-level roles.

For a deeper drill-down on year-over-year Samsung headcount trends, the companion article walks region-by-region change since 2020.

Samsung Brand Value (Interbrand vs BrandFinance)

• Interbrand’s 2024 Best Global Brands ranking placed Samsung’s brand value at $100.8 billion, securing a position in the top five globally for the fifth consecutive year.
• Samsung’s Interbrand value grew 10% year-over-year in 2024 and remains the only Asian business in the global top five.
• Since first entering the Interbrand top five in 2020, Samsung has expanded its brand value by 62% over four years.
• BrandFinance’s January 2026 Global 500 report logged Samsung’s brand value at $119.2 billion, up 8% year-over-year.
• Per the same BrandFinance report, Samsung dropped from 6th to 8th in the global ranking, its lowest position in a decade.
• Interbrand cited Samsung’s leadership in AI deployment across key products, particularly on-device AI, and continued competitiveness in semiconductors as the basis for the top-5 rank.

The split is methodology. Interbrand weighs financial performance, the role of brand in purchase decision, and brand strength; BrandFinance leans on royalty relief and adds a wider competitive set, including Asian peers. Same Samsung, two different lenses, and both are defensible. Brand-strength comparisons are most useful when read against peer companies of similar scale, such as Microsoft, which sits near the top of both lists.

Samsung Market Capitalization Trends

• As of May 2026, Samsung’s market capitalization reached $1.185 trillion, ranking it the world’s 11th most valuable company.
• DemandSage’s compilation cites Samsung’s 2026 market cap at $772.29 billion, up 42.46% from $542.11 billion in 2025.
• Samsung’s consolidated 2025 revenue totaled ₩333.6 trillion ($230.13 billion), up 5.13% from the prior year per the H1 Interim Report.
• Samsung’s market cap reflects the AI-driven rerating of its semiconductor franchise during 2025-2026. The two trackers use different methodologies (USD listing snapshot vs Korean-market compilation), so we surface both values rather than reconcile them into a single ratio.

Samsung Galaxy AI and the Galaxy S26 Launch

• Samsung announced the Galaxy S26 series on February 25, 2026, with general availability beginning March 11, 2026.
• The flagship lineup includes three models: the S26 Ultra, S26+, and S26.
• The S26 Ultra ships with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, delivering a CPU performance increase of up to 19%.
• The same chipset delivered up to a 39% improvement in NPU performance.
• GPU performance climbed 24%.
• New AI features include Now Nudge for contextual suggestions, an upgraded Photo Assist for conversational editing, and Circle to Search with multi-object recognition.
• The S26 line integrates Gemini and Perplexity for complex multi-step tasks, expanding the agentic-AI surface.

Samsung vs Apple Per-User Economics

• Samsung holds approximately 1.033 billion active phone users globally, the largest single-brand smartphone install base.
• Q1 2026 Samsung handset shipments stood at 62.4 million units per IDC, an annualized run-rate near 250 million units.
• Samsung’s Q4 2025 mobile division generated ₩29.3 trillion in revenue.
• Samsung’s Android ecosystem market share sits at 30.7%, an indicator of channel and brand strength.

Samsung’s mobile division includes tablets, wearables, and accessories, not just handsets, so cross-company per-user comparisons need careful framing. Apple’s per-user revenue capture for iPhone and services typically runs several multiples higher per active device, which is why two companies with overlapping install bases produce very different profit profiles in the broader Samsung statistics picture.

Conclusion

Samsung enters mid-2026 carrying two contradictory storylines at once. The first is a record-setting financial run: FY 2025 revenue at ₩333.61 trillion ($233.3 billion) and Q1 2026 chip-division operating profit at ₩53.7 trillion (around $36.18 billion), the largest single-segment quarter the company has ever disclosed. The second is the structural concentration that comes with it: 94% of Q1 2026 operating profit came from the chip business, leaving handsets, displays, and home appliances meaningfully exposed to memory-cycle reversals.

The forward signal points in two directions at once. AI-server demand looks durable into the back half of 2026, the 20-year TV crown is unlikely to topple this year, and the 262,647-person workforce now has a clear capex backbone (₩52.7 trillion in facility spend) to execute on HBM4 and successor nodes. Against that, the smartphone is at the top of the market. Samsung is roughly level with Apple across IDC, Counterpoint, and Omdia trackers, and the BrandFinance slip from 6th to 8th suggests that brand and product leadership outside the chip cycle is still contested. Either way, the next quarterly disclosure will tell us whether the 48-fold semiconductor profit growth has a second act.