Samsung ups R&D investment to lead the AI race

According to a new report from Reuters today, Samsung Electronics plans to invest KRW 110 trillion, or approximately $73 billion, in research and development and facilities “in a bid to lead the semiconductor industry in artificial intelligence”.

In a corporate filing, Samsung also revealed that it is pursuing “meaningful mergers and acquisitions” in areas like robotics, medical technology, automotive electronics, and air conditioning solutions.

To put the number in perspective, Samsung says it invested a total of KRW 90.4 trillion, or approximately $60 billion, in R&D last year. So this year’s plan would represent an increase in expenditure of over 21% compared to 2025.

The Korean company already is the world’s biggest memory chip producer, and it’s recently signed a memorandum of understanding with AMD to supply that company with its HBM4 chips, used in AI data centers.