Who earns the most?
Samsung just out-earned Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft: about $80B of operating profit in one quarter. A year ago it was last.
Which of these eight would you have put on top?
Samsung says it made about 107.4 trillion won in July to September. That is about $80B, and almost 9 times the 12.17 trillion won of a year earlier.
Latest reported quarter for the others: Nvidia $63.7B Alphabet $40.8B Microsoft $40.6B Apple $35.7B Amazon $27.5B TSMC about $24B Meta $18.8B
A year ago Microsoft led at $34.3B. Meta is the only one of the eight that earned less than a year before.
Reports link Samsung's jump to memory chips, which AI data centers buy in huge amounts.
Two limits. Samsung's number is an early estimate; full results come on 28 October. And the quarters do not line up: Samsung's ended in September, most others in June. Nvidia reports again in November.
