South Korea's semiconductor titans are delivering a landmark week for investor returns, with Samsung Electronics unveiling a comprehensive shareholder payout package shortly after SK hynix disclosed its own stock repurchase initiative.
On Friday, Samsung announced that its projected shareholder return pool for 2026 is expected to reach between 90 trillion and 110 trillion Korean won (approximately $65.1 billion to $79.5 billion). The company touted this as the largest shareholder return program in the history of South Korean corporations.
Samsung, which has been striving to close the gap with domestic rival SK hynix in the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) segment crucial for AI applications, has seen its shares surge roughly 135% year-to-date. The company also revealed plans to distribute approximately 30 trillion won in cash dividends for the third quarter, which includes its standard quarterly payout. Samsung noted that the specific dividend details will be finalized during a board meeting slated for late October.
The announcement follows SK hynix's revelation just days earlier of a 40 trillion won share buyback program. Samsung indicated that the remaining specifics of its shareholder return strategy, including the exact allocation amounts and execution methods, will be determined at a board meeting in late January 2027. The plan will incorporate a combination of cash dividends and share buybacks followed by cancellation.
Friday's announcement builds upon Samsung's earlier 2024-2026 Shareholder Return Program, which pledged to return 50% of free cash flow generated during that period to shareholders while maintaining an annual regular dividend of 9.8 trillion won. In its corporate value enhancement initiative released in March, Samsung disclosed that it had distributed a combined 20.9 trillion won in cash dividends across 2024 and 2025, alongside allocating 8.4 trillion won for share repurchases and subsequent cancellation.
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