Samsung's 107.4 Trillion Won Redraws the Global Corporate 'Profit Map'

Samsung Electronics' third-quarter operating profit of 107.4 trillion won is a figure that redraws the global corporate 'profit map.' When converting the recent quarterly operating profits of major global companies into Korean won and lining them up, Samsung Electronics stands at the highest point.

Second place goes to Nvidia, a leader in AI semiconductors. In its quarter ending July, it recorded sales of 96.32 billion dollars (approximately 128.8 trillion won) and operating profit of 63.73 billion dollars (approximately 85.3 trillion won). This marks its 13th consecutive quarter of record-breaking results, but it falls short of Samsung Electronics' performance this quarter. Third place is Saudi Aramco (77.4 trillion won), which was once the sole member of the 'quarterly 100 trillion won profit club.'

Big Tech companies follow suit. Alphabet (Google) 54.6 trillion won, Microsoft 54.4 trillion won, Apple 47.8 trillion won, and Amazon 36.8 trillion won in order. TSMC, a semiconductor contract manufacturer, earned 32.3 trillion won, Meta 28.4 trillion won, ExxonMobil, the leading oil refiner, 24.3 trillion won, and Broadcom, an AI network semiconductor company, 21.5 trillion won.

This map reveals two things. First, the top tier of global corporate profits has completely shifted from oil to semiconductors and AI. Among the top 10 companies, only two are energy companies, and the rest are all technology companies. Second, at the very top of this hierarchy now sits a company from Suwon. This quarter, combining the super boom in memory semiconductors and Samsung Electronics' competitiveness in HBM, Samsung Electronics surpassed even Saudi Aramco's 2022 record, becoming the company with the highest quarterly profit in listed company history.

The figures for each company are based on the most recently disclosed quarter, and since each company's quarter-end month differs, they are not compared on the same basis. The won conversion applied the exchange rate as of October 7 (1,338.92 won per dollar).