Morgan Stanley: Samsung Leads Globally in Profit, Memory Supercycle Valuation Hard to Fully Capture

S, according to Chaoward Research, a Morgan Stanley research report dated October 11, 2026 states that Samsung Electronics’ third-quarter operating profit was approximately $81.3 billion, surpassing NVIDIA’s $71.6 billion and SK hynix’s $57.8 billion; shares of Samsung and SK hynix have declined 35% from their peaks, with forward P/E ratios of only 3 to 4 times; the HBM market is projected to triple to $100 billion by 2028; Q4 DRAM contract prices are expected to rise 10% to 15% quarter-over-quarter, NAND to increase 15% to 20%, and enterprise SSDs to climb 23% to 28%.

Morgan Stanley assesses that the memory supercycle is real, but the market continues to price based on old-cycle metrics and has not granted full valuation multiples. Memory stocks have risen ninefold since the cycle's beginning, though the breadth of earnings revisions is slowing. The firm recommends overweighting AI compute and networking supply chains, allocating selectively in memory, and favoring Samsung, SK hynix, and Kioxia.