Goldman Sachs: Goldman Sachs earnings snapshot: Samsung accelerates HBM, while automakers face pressure on prices and sales

What will drive Samsung’s next phase of profit growth?

Samsung Electronics reported third-quarter 2026 revenue of 195.3 trillion South Korean won and operating profit of 107.4 trillion South Korean won, in line with its earlier guidance. HBM4 revenue tripled quarter over quarter, and management expects tight memory supply to persist through 2028.
Citing strong AI server demand and a rising share of high-value memory products, Goldman Sachs raised its fourth-quarter operating profit forecast to a record 127 trillion South Korean won. The bank estimates that HBM’s share of DRAM revenue will more than double to 20% in 2027.

Amazon reported third-quarter operating profit of 28.1 billion US dollars, while AWS revenue rose 39.3% year over year to 45.98 billion US dollars, both above market consensus; however, AWS growth fell short of higher buy-side expectations of more than 42%.
The company guided for fourth-quarter total revenue of 240 billion to 247 billion US dollars, a range that includes market consensus; its operating profit guidance was 28.5 billion to 33.5 billion US dollars, with the upper end slightly above expectations. Management also said it expects AWS to grow 40% in 2027 and 2028.

BYD’s third-quarter revenue was 9% below Goldman Sachs’ forecast, its gross margin was 18.0%, below the bank’s forecast of 19.8%, and net profit also fell 13% short of the forecast. Goldman Sachs believes higher dealer rebates on older models may have depressed average selling prices; lower selling, administrative and research and development expenses partly offset the operating profit shortfall.
Geely Automobile’s third-quarter revenue and net profit were both 14% below Goldman Sachs’ forecasts, partly because deliveries of Zeekr and Lynk & Co vehicles fell short of expectations, bringing down the overall average selling price. A weaker premium product mix lowered gross margin to 18.0%, below the bank’s expectation of 18.3%; lower operating expenses partly mitigated the operating profit shortfall.

Weichai Power’s third-quarter revenue was 8% below Goldman Sachs’ forecast, mainly weighed down by weak sales of conventional heavy-duty truck engines and currency factors at KION; net profit of 2.96 billion yuan was in line with the bank’s expectation.
Strong sales in the high-margin power generation business lifted the company’s gross margin to a record 22.9%, and core operating profit reached 5.14 billion yuan, 8% above Goldman Sachs’ forecast. Goldman Sachs believes that quarter-over-quarter profit growth despite a 60% year-over-year decline in installations of highly profitable LNG heavy-duty truck engines shows that the shift toward power generation for AI data centers is changing the margin structure.