Samsung and SK hynix Are Giving Back Huge Amounts of Money to Their Shareholders
Samsung Electronics announced on August 21, 2026 that it plans to give shareholders between 90 and 110 trillion Korean won in 2026, which the company calls the largest payout ever by a Korean company (Samsung Newsroom). That figure is roughly $72 billion or more, according to a Reuters report on August 20 that said Samsung planned to unveil the programme pending board approval at a meeting at the end of August (Reuters.
Two days earlier, on August 19, SK hynix said it would buy back and cancel 40 trillion won (about $28.61 billion) of its own shares, the largest buyback and cancellation in Korean history (SK hynix Newsroom; Reuters). A buyback means a company uses its own cash to purchase its shares from the market. Cancelling those shares means they are destroyed, so each remaining share becomes worth more because it represents a larger slice of the company. SK hynix's buyback uses more than half of the spare cash it expects to generate over 2025–2027, and it comes after the company's share price had been falling.
Both announcements follow growing pressure from investors. Reuters reported on August 6 that Samsung and SK hynix face calls from shareholders who want a bigger share of the cash generated by the artificial intelligence (AI) memory chip boom, whether through dividends or buybacks (Reuters). A dividend is a regular cash payment a company makes to its shareholders, usually from profits. SK hynix's first-quarter 2026 results show how much money is flowing: quarterly sales topped 50 trillion won for the first time, with an operating profit of 37.6 trillion won — meaning the company kept 72 won of profit for every 100 won of sales (SK hynix Newsroom.
Samsung's new figure builds on an earlier plan. In January 2024, the company promised to give shareholders half of its spare cash over the 2024–2026 period, while keeping its regular dividend at a steady annual level (Samsung Newsroom). In November 2024, Samsung launched a 10 trillion won buyback of 50.14 million common shares and 6.91 million preferred shares, running from November 18, 2024 to February 17, 2025 (Samsung Newsroom). Yonhap reported in June 2026 that Samsung was also considering buying back shares to help fund employee bonuses paid in stock (Investing.com/Yonhap.
SK hynix has its own return plan. In November 2024, it raised its annual fixed dividend by 25% to 1,500 won per share under its 2025–2027 programme (SK hynix Newsroom. The 40 trillion won cancellation announced last week comes on top of that dividend increase.
Both companies have done multi-phase buybacks before. Samsung's board approved a 4.2 trillion won first-phase buyback in October 2015, set to last about three months (Samsung Newsroom). A later programme involved Samsung buying back and cancelling 1.02 million common shares and 255,000 preferred shares in a first phase, then 900,000 common shares and 225,000 preferred shares in a later phase, with the board approving a fourth phase and a third-quarter dividend in October 2017 (Samsung Newsroom.
The numbers are unmatched in the Korean market. SK hynix's 40 trillion won cancellation is four times the size of Samsung's 10 trillion won buyback from November 2024. Samsung's 90–110 trillion won estimate for 2026 is far larger still. Samsung's 2024 plan committed to returning half of its spare cash; the new figure suggests either that Samsung is returning more than half, or that the amount of spare cash has grown much faster than expected.
The broader context here is that these companies are making record profits from memory chips at the same time that investors are pushing harder for payouts in a market long criticised for being stingy with shareholders. SK hynix's 72% profit margin in the first quarter of 2026 means it is generating so much cash that even a 40 trillion won buyback looks modest by comparison. Reuters noted that both companies' share prices had been under pressure despite booming AI-driven earnings, and that gap typically pushes management toward bigger payouts. SK hynix said its cancellation came after share price declines.
What is not yet clear is how Samsung's 90–110 trillion won breaks down between buybacks and dividends, or whether it covers the whole 2024–2026 period or is an additional amount for 2026 alone. The board meeting at the end of August should provide answers. Samsung's possible use of buybacks to fund employee stock bonuses, reported by Yonhap in June, adds another wrinkle: part of the money returned to shareholders might also serve as an offset for employee compensation rather than purely boosting the value of each share.
For anyone watching these companies, the real question is whether they will follow through. Korean companies have a history of announcing large return programmes and then carrying them out slowly or only partly. Samsung's November 2024 buyback was 10 trillion won; the 2026 estimate is nine to eleven times that. Whether the board approves the full amount, and how quickly the money actually reaches shareholders, will determine whether these announcements help close the gap between Korean chip companies' stock prices and those of their U.S. competitors.
