Samsung Electronics announced Friday it expects to return 90–110 trillion won ($65–80 billion) to shareholders in 2026, the largest by any Korean company, after rival SK Hynix unveiled a 40 trillion won ($29 billion) share buyback the prior day. Samsung's board will finalize details in late October; the company also pledged 30 trillion won in dividends for Q3. SK Hynix's buyback, committing 24 million shares for cancellation through November, carries an additional pledge to return more than 50% of cumulative free cash flow over 2025–2027—up from a previous ceiling of 50%.
The twin announcements reflect both chipmakers' rush to placate investors after share prices tumbled over doubts about AI spending durability. SK Hynix stock jumped 14.7%, Samsung 10.3%; the Seoul market followed with a 5.9% rebound. JPMorgan and Korean analysts now project SK Hynix's three-year shareholder returns could reach $170 billion or more, while Samsung could deploy $100–150 billion depending on free-cash-flow strength and how much it weights buybacks versus special dividends.
For practitioners tracking memory-chip inventory and capex cycles: these record payouts underscore the industry's confidence in sustained AI-driven demand for high-bandwidth memory. The structural shift from 'up to 50%' to 'more than 50%' means less cash reserved for fabs and packaging—a signal that memory makers see multi-year visibility into model-scaling demand and are confident enough to lock returns to shareholders now rather than hoard for downturns.