Samsung Electronics Co must adopt a “do-or-die” mindset to confront the challenges posed by artificial intelligence (AI) that are upending the industry, Yonhap news cited chairman Jay Y. Lee as saying yesterday.
Samsung has been struggling to meet Nvidia Corp’s requirements, as rival SK Hynix Inc has become the titan’s main supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips for its AI graphics processing units.
The world’s largest memorychip maker in October last year acknowledged that it was facing a “crisis” and admitted questions had arisen about its “fundamental technological competitiveness and the future of the company.”
Photo: Jung Yeon-je, AFP
“Samsung is facing a do-or-die survival issue. We need to reflect deeply from the top,” Lee was quoted as saying during a training for top executives.
Lee’s message was to emphasize that “what matters is not the crisis itself, but the attitude in dealing with it,” Yonhap reported, citing company sources.
Lee also said that “even if it means sacrificing short-term profits, we must invest for the future,” Yonhap added.
A Samsung spokesperson yesterday said that Lee had not “said the message himself” without giving further details.
Separately, South Korean semiconductor exports to China plunged last month, deepening concerns about a cooling in global demand already threatened by US tariffs, as Washington steps up its restrictions on technology supplies to Beijing.
Chip sales to the world’s second-largest economy, including Hong Kong, fell 31.8 percent from a year earlier, the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said on Sunday. That is bigger than the 22.5 percent contraction reported for January and comes after a rally last year that helped fuel South Korea’s economic growth.
The decline at the beginning of this year coincides with the US implementing its export restrictions on cutting-edge semiconductors to China. The US Department of Commerce in December last year slapped fresh curbs on the sale of HBM chips to China.
South Korea’s total semiconductor exports slipped 3 percent from a year earlier last month, ministry data showed.
Declining prices in conventional memory chips and a technological transition in semiconductor production were among reasons the growth in exports slowed, the ministry said.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
Popular vape brands such as Geek Bar might get more expensive in the US — if you can find them at all. Shipments of vapes from China to the US ground to a near halt last month from a year ago, official data showed, hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a crackdown on unauthorized e-cigarettes in the world’s biggest market for smoking alternatives. That includes Geek Bar, a brand of flavored vapes that is not authorized to sell in the US, but which had been widely available due to porous import controls. One retailer, who asked not to be named, because
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
MINERAL DIPLOMACY: The Chinese commerce ministry said it approved applications for the export of rare earths in a move that could help ease US-China trade tensions Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) is today to meet a US delegation for talks in the UK, Beijing announced on Saturday amid a fragile truce in the trade dispute between the two powers. He is to visit the UK from yesterday to Friday at the invitation of the British government, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. He and US representatives are to cochair the first meeting of the US-China economic and trade consultation mechanism, it said. US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that a new round of trade talks with China would start in London beginning today,
RSS