Samsung Electronics’ latest standard general-purpose DRAM, DDR5. Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) is projected to generate more operating profit in 2028 than Japan’s top 100 listed companies combined, according to a Goldman Sachs report that has stunned investors across Japan.
The forecast has sparked shock in Japanese investment communities, with reactions describing the projected gap as “hard to believe,” even as Japan’s stock market continues its record-breaking rally.
Goldman Sachs recently projected Samsung Electronics’ 2028 operating profit at $344.5 billion (approximately 494 trillion won), the Korean financial investment industry said Wednesday. The figure is more than 10 times Samsung’s expected operating profit for this year.
The projection is roughly 11 times the approximately 4.7 trillion yen (about 43 trillion won) in operating profit posted by Toyota Motor, Japan’s largest company by market capitalization, for fiscal year 2025 (April 2024 to March 2025).
What drew particular attention on Japanese online platforms was the comparison showing that “Samsung Electronics alone will surpass the combined operating profit of Japan’s top 100 listed companies.”
Related charts and data have spread rapidly across Japanese investment communities and social media. One widely shared graph contrasted Goldman Sachs’ forecast of 53 trillion yen in Samsung’s 2028 operating profit with the 42.3 trillion yen combined operating profit of Japan’s top 100 listed companies, including Toyota.
Japanese internet users struggled to hide their dismay. Online reactions included comments such as “The opposite of the future Japan hoped for is happening,” “Someone please tell me this is a lie,” “Why doesn’t Japan have a company like Samsung Electronics?” and “I thought it was a typo in the article.”
Samsung’s earnings growth is being borne out in actual figures. In the first quarter of this year, Samsung Electronics posted record quarterly results on a consolidated basis, with revenue of 133.9 trillion won and operating profit of 57.2 trillion won.
The Device Solutions (DS) division, which oversees the semiconductor business, led the performance with revenue of 81.7 trillion won and operating profit of 53.7 trillion won.
Market analysts say the memory chip industry is entering a “super cycle” of a different dimension from the past, driven by expanded AI data center investment and surging demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM). Memory chips, once classified as a highly cyclical industry, are undergoing a structural shift as they emerge as core infrastructure for the AI era.
Japan, meanwhile, still maintains competitiveness in semiconductor materials and equipment. But its presence in mass production of advanced memory and cutting-edge chips — key infrastructure in the AI era — is seen as diminished compared to its heyday.
Analysts also note that as global equity markets reorganize around AI chip companies, the contrast has become stark between Japan, once a manufacturing powerhouse, and Korean companies now leading the AI memory market.
Japanese online reactions reflected this sentiment, with comments such as “Japanese electronics companies once dominated the world, but now it’s hard to even catch up with Samsung Electronics,” and “It’s shocking that the biggest beneficiary of the AI era is a Korean company, not a Japanese one.”