The news
Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) said on August 21, 2026, that its board had approved a 2026 Samsung shareholder return estimated at KRW 90 trillion to KRW 110 trillion, which the company called the largest ever by a Korean company.
Samsung said the amount is about five times its previous record of KRW 20.3 trillion, set in 2020. Reuters converted the range to about $65 billion to $79.5 billion. Samsung said the plan delivers on its 2024 to 2026 policy of returning 50% of free cash flow, the cash left after operating costs and capital spending, to shareholders.
The payout comes in stages. Samsung plans to distribute about KRW 30 trillion in cash dividends in the third quarter of 2026, including regular dividends, with details to be finalized at its October board meeting. The rest will be set at the January 2027 board meeting, once 2026 results are confirmed, and will include cash dividends and share buybacks with cancellations. The board also approved a separate buyback of about KRW 15 trillion to fund employee compensation.
Samsung paid KRW 9.8 trillion a year in regular dividends in 2024 and 2025, plus a KRW 1.3 trillion special dividend and a KRW 8.4 trillion buyback and cancellation in 2025. Including the new plan, the company expects returns for 2024 to 2026 to total KRW 120 trillion to KRW 140 trillion.
Chips are generating the cash. On July 30, 2026, Samsung reported record quarterly revenue of KRW 171.5 trillion and operating profit of KRW 89.5 trillion for the second quarter, with its Device Solutions chip division contributing KRW 89.2 trillion of that profit. Samsung said rising industry prices helped its memory business and that AI server demand was projected to keep the market undersupplied in the second half.
The Next Web reported that Samsung shares fell as much as 2.6% in post-market trading after the announcement. It quoted Kim Minji, a portfolio manager at Must Asset Management, as saying some investors had expected up to 150 trillion won.
The numbers
- 2026 shareholder return (Samsung estimate)
- KRW 90 trillion to 110 trillion
- Previous record (2020)
- KRW 20.3 trillion
- Third-quarter 2026 cash dividends
- About KRW 30 trillion
- Buyback for employee compensation
- About KRW 15 trillion
- Expected total returns, 2024 to 2026
- KRW 120 trillion to 140 trillion
- Q2 2026 operating profit
- KRW 89.5 trillion
Why CEOs should care
For boards and CFOs, Samsung has set a new reference point for what a chipmaker does with an AI windfall. Its payout is tied to a formula, 50% of free cash flow over 2024 to 2026, rather than a fixed amount, so its size tracks the cash the business actually generates. Boards weighing their own capital plans should ask whether their payout is formula-based or fixed, and what happens to it in a down cycle.
For technology buyers, the same numbers carry a less welcome message. Samsung said rising prices helped drive its record memory earnings, and it projects an undersupplied market in the second half of 2026. Companies buying servers, DRAM or high-bandwidth memory should plan for tight supply at least through the end of 2026, lock in allocation and pricing terms where they can, and ask suppliers how much of their new profit is going into capacity rather than payouts.
Investors should watch the split rather than the headline. Samsung has fixed only about KRW 30 trillion so far; the mix of dividends and buybacks for the remainder will not be known until January 2027. Jung In Yun of Fibonacci Asset Management Global was quoted by The Next Web as saying that how the remaining capital is returned is now the key question.
The bigger picture
The scale marks a sharp change from Samsung's last three-year cycle. In January 2024, Samsung said it had generated KRW 18.8 trillion of free cash flow across 2021 to 2023 and that, including a dividend declared that day, it would have returned KRW 29.4 trillion. By our calculation, the 2026 plan alone is roughly three times that three-year total.
Samsung is not alone. The Next Web reported that SK Hynix announced a 40 trillion won buyback two days earlier, on Wednesday, August 19, and quoted Tom Kang of Counterpoint as saying Samsung's move could help spark broader structural change in the Korean stock market.
What happened next
The employee compensation buyback moved quickly. Samsung planned to buy about 53.3 million common shares on the open market between August 24 and November 21, 2026. Korea JoongAng Daily reported on September 28 that, as of Wednesday, September 23, Samsung had bought 45.8 million shares, or 85.95% of the total, at about 2 million shares a day, which the paper said could let it finish nearly two months ahead of schedule.
The same report said Samsung shares fell 5.43% to close at 270,000 won on Monday, September 28, the last trading day to qualify for the third-quarter dividend. The paper linked the selloff to a spike in U.S. Treasury yields while Korean markets were closed for the Chuseok holiday. Samsung's October board meeting will finalize the third-quarter dividend, and its January 2027 meeting will set the rest of the 2026 return.
What “Fact-checked” means
Fact-checking means testing a story’s facts against the evidence before it is published. This story went through at least two separate checks before this version was published.
- What we checked
- Its names, figures, dates, job titles, quotes and who said what were checked against the story’s sources, including its main source where it could be opened. The headline was checked for accuracy and overstatement.
- How
- A first check reviewed the whole story. If it passed, a second, skeptical check went back to the sources to look for mistakes in the most important facts. If a check flagged the story, it was edited to fix the problems found, and a separate re-check then reviewed the whole story again.
- Who
- The checks are made with our newsroom’s technology tools, as steps kept separate from the writing, under rules set by our editor, Hussein Mukhtar. A story the checks still flag is not published automatically; it is held for the editor, who decides whether it is fixed, published or dropped.
- Archive story
- It was written after the event. Its dates were checked against the date of the event, including the dates of any later developments it reports.
- If something is wrong
- “Fact-checked” does not mean error-free. If a material error is found after publication, we correct the story and add a note saying what changed. Report an error
Companies in this story
