Samsung’s four major Vietnam plants generated more than $2.3 billion in profit in the first half of 2026, marking a dramatic turnaround as the global AI boom drives chip demand.
Samsung’s four plants in Vietnam continued to post strong profits in the first half of 2026. Photo: Thai Nguyen Newspaper
As Samsung Electronics benefits from the semiconductor and AI boom, the group’s major manufacturing operations in Vietnam are also maintaining strong business performance.
In the first six months of 2026, Samsung Electronics’ four major entities in Vietnam - Samsung Thai Nguyen, Samsung Electronics Vietnam in Bac Ninh, Samsung Display Vietnam in Bac Ninh, and Samsung Electronics HCMC CE Complex in Ho Chi Minh City - generated combined revenue of more than $35 billion.
More notably, the four plants posted combined profit of more than $2.3 billion, up 23.5% from the same period last year.
Samsung Thai Nguyen remained the standout performer, generating more than $16 billion in revenue and around $1.1 billion in profit.
Samsung Electronics Vietnam in Bac Ninh recorded nearly $9.1 billion in revenue and more than $670 million in profit. Samsung Display Vietnam posted more than $7 billion in revenue and around $395 million in profit, while Samsung Electronics HCMC CE Complex generated about $2.8 billion in revenue and $158 million in profit.
The results are particularly striking when viewed against some of the difficult periods the company experienced in previous years.
The fourth quarter of 2023 marked an unprecedented low, when three of Samsung’s four plants in Vietnam simultaneously reported losses. Their combined profit fell to around negative $178 million. At the time, Samsung Electronics globally reported $4.83 billion in profit.
In the fourth quarter of 2018, Samsung Bac Ninh and Samsung HCMC CE Complex posted losses of around $70 million and $80 million, respectively. Samsung Thai Nguyen and Samsung Display remained profitable, however, bringing the four entities’ combined profit to around $100 million.
In the third quarter of 2016, the Galaxy Note 7 crisis pushed Samsung Bac Ninh into a loss of around $105 million. Even then, Samsung’s factories in Vietnam remained profitable overall.
From periods when its plants were heavily exposed to cycles in smartphones and consumer electronics, Samsung Vietnam has now returned to a position of exceptionally strong profitability.
On Aug. 27, Samsung Electronics CEO Roh Tae Moon said the company’s smartphone manufacturing operations in Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen had reached cumulative exports of $500 billion by the end of June, after 17 years of production in Vietnam.
Samsung is also Vietnam’s largest foreign direct investor, with total investment exceeding $24 billion as of the end of 2025.
Globally, Samsung Electronics recorded around $205.6 billion in revenue and $80 billion in net profit in the first half of 2026, nearly double and about nine times the respective figures from a year earlier.
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Samsung’s four Vietnam plants generated a combined profit of $2.3 billion. Source: Samsung Electronics
Globally, Samsung Electronics recorded more than $206 billion in revenue and $80 billion in net profit in the first half of 2026, nearly double and about nine times the respective figures from a year earlier. Source: Samsung Electronics
Samsung’s dramatic rebound is not simply being driven by a recovery in smartphones or televisions. The most important force behind it is semiconductors.
The role of chips became even clearer in the first half of this year. In the second quarter alone, the Device Solutions division, which primarily covers semiconductors, generated about $59.8 billion in operating profit, accounting for almost all of Samsung Electronics’ roughly $60 billion operating profit.
In particular, the investment wave sweeping through data centers and artificial intelligence is driving a sharp rise in chip demand.
The benefits extend beyond HBM, or high-bandwidth memory used in AI systems. Demand for DRAM and NAND is also rising as AI models become increasingly complex and AI agents begin performing tasks that require greater computing power.
Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron are the three major memory manufacturers serving the AI era. Chipmakers are increasingly signing long-term supply agreements as shortages are forecast to persist until at least 2027.
That has put Samsung in a dramatically different position from where it stood just two years ago.
In 2024, Samsung publicly apologized for failing to maintain its technological competitiveness and meet market expectations. Yet in a relatively short period, the South Korean conglomerate has staged a remarkable turnaround.
As of Sept. 2, Samsung Electronics had a market capitalization of around $1.177 trillion. Its shares have risen sharply since the beginning of the year, at one point nearly doubling and pushing its market value above the $1 trillion threshold.
Samsung, however, also faces a paradox: the more expensive chips become, the greater the pressure on its consumer electronics businesses. Rising component costs could squeeze smartphone margins. The MX and Networks division posted an operating loss of around $470 million in the second quarter, while component cost pressures could continue to weigh on earnings in the remaining quarters.
Samsung is also betting on its foundry business - manufacturing chips designed by customers - as it competes with TSMC. With demand for advanced chip fabrication rising and capacity at major manufacturers under pressure, Samsung has another opportunity to expand orders from large customers, with names such as Tesla and Qualcomm being mentioned in the market. The enormous profits generated by memory chips also give the group more financial firepower to invest in this race.
For Vietnam, the outlook is equally significant.
The four plants are not only major Samsung manufacturing facilities for smartphones, displays and consumer electronics, but also part of an increasingly important production ecosystem for the group in Asia.
If the AI investment cycle and global electronics demand remain strong, Vietnam could continue to benefit as Samsung expands production, exports and its supply chain.
After experiencing quarters in which the four plants collectively lost hundreds of millions of dollars, Samsung Vietnam has now generated more than $2.3 billion in profit in just the first half of the year.
And that may only be the beginning of a new growth cycle if the global appetite for AI chips continues to intensify.
Vietnamnet.vn
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