A rebound in semiconductor factory construction is delivering a sharp earnings boost to Samsung C&T, a South Korean construction and trading conglomerate, as major chipmaking projects move forward and new contracts expand its business in the United States.
The company has secured approximately $2 billion in new construction work at Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor complex in Taylor, Texas, adding to a growing pipeline of projects tied to the expansion of advanced chip manufacturing. While the latest profit surge was driven primarily by construction in South Korea, the Texas contract highlights how semiconductor investment is generating business on both sides of the Pacific.
The turnaround also illustrates how closely construction companies depend on the investment cycles of chipmakers. Just a year ago, Samsung C&T was struggling with declining revenue as major construction phases at semiconductor facilities, including the Taylor project, came to an end. Now, renewed factory construction is reversing those losses.
Samsung C&T said Wednesday that operating profit at its construction division jumped 149.5% to $206 million in the third quarter, compared with $82 million a year earlier. Revenue climbed 44.5% to $3.3 billion, while operating profit rose 37.1% from the previous quarter.
Much of the improvement came from Samsung Electronics’ Pyeongtaek semiconductor campus in South Korea, where construction of the P5 Fab 1 and Fab 2 facilities has accelerated. New data center and commercial building projects also began contributing more substantially to revenue.
Revenue from building construction increased 54.7% to $2.3 billion, while industrial plant construction revenue rose 34.4% to $835 million. Domestic revenue surged 66% to $1.6 billion, outpacing the 28.7% increase in overseas revenue to $1.7 billion.
The recovery represents a significant reversal from 2025, when a slowdown in major semiconductor construction projects pushed the division’s annual revenue down 24.2% to $10 billion. Operating profit fell 46.5% to $400 million as large projects approached completion.
In the first nine months of 2026, however, construction operating profit reached $440 million, already exceeding the previous year’s full year total. Revenue during the period increased 17.4% to $8.8 billion.
The division has also become a more important source of earnings within Samsung C&T. Construction accounted for 24.2% of the company’s total operating profit in the third quarter, more than double its 11.2% contribution a year earlier. Its $123 million increase in operating profit helped offset a $44 million decline in the biotechnology business.
Samsung C&T reported consolidated quarterly revenue of $8.9 billion and operating profit of $850 million.
More importantly, the construction recovery is extending beyond projects already generating revenue. Samsung C&T secured $6.5 billion in new construction orders during the third quarter, bringing its total for the first nine months to approximately $14 billion.
The Texas semiconductor contract was among its largest new orders, alongside a $447 million structural construction project at Samsung Electronics’ Pyeongtaek campus. The company also secured major residential redevelopment contracts in Seoul worth approximately $1.5 billion and $1 billion.
The expanding pipeline prompted Samsung C&T to raise its annual construction order target from $17 billion to $22 billion, an increase of 28%. Its order backlog reached $28 billion at the end of September, representing roughly 2.7 years of construction revenue at last year’s level.
That backlog provides a measure of how much work remains ahead, even as semiconductor construction spending continues to fluctuate with the timing of individual projects.
Samsung C&T expects revenue and operating profit to increase further in the fourth quarter as chip factory construction advances and newly secured overseas data center and energy projects move into more active development.
The company now expects both annual revenue and new orders to exceed its original targets, extending a recovery that began in South Korea’s semiconductor manufacturing sector and is building a larger pipeline of work in the United States.
