Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
About
Samsung Electronics is the improbable triumph of a company that began in 1938 as a trading house selling dried fish, noodles, and produce — and whose founder, Lee Byung-chul, pivoted into electronics in 1969, decades after the chaebol's grocery origins. The bet was staggering: in the 1970s, Samsung started making black-and-white TVs in a country most of the world considered a poor backwater. Fifty years later, it is the world's largest maker of smartphones, memory chips, and TVs. The empire's core is semiconductors: Samsung is the world's largest memory chip maker (DRAM and NAND), with a near-duopoly over advanced memory alongside SK Hynix, and its foundry business makes chips for other companies. Its mobile division's Galaxy line competes head-to-head with Apple for the global smartphone crown, and its consumer electronics division dominates TVs and home appliances. The company also runs one of the world's largest smartphone factories and the largest semiconductor fabs, in Pyeongtaek. Headquartered in Suwon, South Korea, with about 270,000 employees and annual revenue near US$200 billion, Samsung Electronics is the flagship of the Samsung Group, which generates about a fifth of South Korea's GDP. Its challenges — memory price cycles, catching TSMC in leading-edge foundry, and Chinese competition — are the challenges of Korea itself, but its dominance in memory remains the bedrock of the digital world.
Also known as: Samsung Electronics
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Samsung Electronics make?+
Samsung Electronics makes smartphones (the Galaxy line), memory chips (DRAM and NAND), TVs, home appliances, and runs a foundry business that manufactures chips for other companies.
Where is Samsung Electronics based?+
Samsung Electronics is headquartered in Suwon, South Korea, with about 270,000 employees and annual revenue near US$200 billion.
Who owns Samsung Electronics?+
Samsung Electronics is the flagship of the Samsung Group, a South Korean chaebol. Its founding family (the Lee family) controls the group through a web of cross-shareholdings.
When was Samsung Electronics founded?+
Samsung began in 1938 as a trading house. It pivoted into electronics in 1969, when founder Lee Byung-chul started producing black-and-white TVs.
