Chair Lee Jae-yong of Samsung Electronics visited the business sites of the Device Solutions (DS) institutional sector, which is in charge of the semiconductor business.
According to the business community on the 22nd, Lee visited "NRD-K," a next-generation research and development (R&D) complex located at the DS institutional sector on the Giheung campus in Gyeonggi Province on the morning of the day. He also reviewed competitiveness in next-generation products and technologies, including ▲ memory ▲ foundry ▲ system semiconductors. It was his first visit to domestic business sites in about a week after returning to Korea on the 15th from a business trip to the United States. Lee said, "Let's restore our fundamental technology competitiveness through bold innovation and investment."
NRD-K is an advanced integrated R&D complex built by Samsung Electronics to preempt future semiconductor technologies. It is working on overcoming the technical limits that come with process miniaturization and developing advanced semiconductor design technologies.
In the afternoon, Lee visited the Hwaseong campus to check the status of building a manufacturing automation system that applies Digital Twin and robotics, as well as the use of AI technologies. At the Hwaseong campus, Lee discussed trends in the global advanced semiconductor industry and future strategies with key semiconductor business executives, including DS institutional sector head Jun Young-hyun and DS institutional sector Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Song Jai-hyuk. He then held a roundtable with employees in ▲ development ▲ manufacturing ▲ quality, who contributed to the commercialization of cutting-edge semiconductor products such as HBM, D1c, and V10, and listened to on-site employees' opinions.
In the industry, Lee's visit to DS business sites is seen as a move to boost employee morale as semiconductor business results are set to improve significantly from the second half of this year. Starting in the third quarter this year, Samsung Electronics increased shipments of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), and with the expansion of global investments in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, prices for commodity DRAM rose, leading to high operating profit.
In the securities market, operating profit at Samsung Electronics' memory division is expected to surge from about 6.35 trillion won in the first half to more than 23 trillion won in the second half. For the full year, operating profit is projected to approach 30 trillion won. Samsung Electronics has also reportedly received positive feedback from Nvidia on "HBM4," its sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory. HBM4 is slated to be installed in Nvidia's "Vera Rubin" AI accelerator, scheduled for release next year.