As you know, Samsung has been struggling to regain its position in the market. Last year, the Korean firm saw a massive decline across multiple business divisions in its global market share. To tackle these growing challenges, the company’s chairman, Lee Jae-Yong, has suggested that executives adopt a “do-or-die” mindset. During a recent Annual General Meeting of Shareholders in Seoul, Samsung’s CEO addressed investors, acknowledging the company’s ongoing slow growth challenges.
Samsung’s Co-CEOs questioned by investors after missing AI boom
The South Korean tech giant failed to benefit from the AI boom, making it one of last year’s worst-performing tech stocks. Because of this, both co-CEOs, the late Han Jong-hee and Jun Young-Hyun faced tough questions from investors.
“We were late in reading the market trends, and we missed out on the early market as a result,” said Jun. On the other hand, Han said, “There are some difficulties in conducting semiconductor M&As due to regulatory issues and various national interests, but we’re determined to produce some tangible results this year.”
Addressing investor concerns, Han also said that this year would be challenging due to uncertainties in economic policies across major economies. He also said that the company would look for “meaningful” mergers and acquisitions to drive growth. Now, Han’s passing comes at a tough time for Samsung, as the company is struggling to compete with TSMC in advanced chip production and attract major clients.
Samsung’s foundry division is struggling with low yield rates for its 3nm and 2nm processes. Despite being the world’s second-largest foundry, its gap with industry leader TSMC has widened to 59 percentage points. However, the company has not given up on development. It is developing next-generation processes in the 1nm class to establish strong technological and manufacturing capabilities in the global market, refuting rumors of the cancellation of its 1.4nm process.
Samsung is also struggling due to U.S. trade restrictions, which have impacted its business with Chinese clients. The company had planned to make Baidu’s chips using its advanced 2nm process by the end of the year. However, due to these restrictions, Samsung has reportedly abandoned its pursuit to secure Baidu’s 2nm AI chip orders.
