Samsung has very ambitious plans for the next five years and has therefore announced that it will invest $356 billion until 2026, inclusive, to strengthen some strategic sectors. Among them, the development of semiconductors and areas such as robotics, telecommunications, artificial intelligence and the pharmaceutical industry stand out.
As reported The Korea Heraldthe plan also includes creating a million new jobs in South Korea during the same period. Of the total, some 80,000 job positions will be covered by the corporation itself, in what is (so far) the largest initiative of its kind in its history.
The new amount to invest is 30% higher than what Samsung allocated to the period covered by the last five years; In addition, it is expected that around 80% of it will remain within South Korean territory.
For now, no mention has been made of how the 356,000 million dollars that Samsung has committed will be distributed. However, it has already been suggested that a good part of the investment will go to the area of research and development of semiconductors. The company wants to bridge the gap with TSMC, both in chip design and manufacturing.
One of Samsung’s main goals in this field is to begin mass-producing its 3 nanometer chips. If there were no inconveniences, there would be more news in this regard in the coming months. Let’s not forget that the 4 nanometer process has not given the expected results, costing the continuity of very important developments; and recently it became known that it plans to increase the price of chips manufactured under contract by up to 20%.
6G is already in Samsung’s sights
Another new fact regarding Samsung’s investment plan is that it also plans to deepen the development of new chips for supercomputers; as well as expanding its presence in the field of robotics and the application of artificial intelligence.
In the telecommunications section, meanwhile, the South Koreans have in their sights the development of 6G technology. Although in many countries 5G networks are still a utopia, Samsung wants to have the advantage in creating the next communications standard.
On the other hand, Samsung also promises to use the multi-million dollar investment to expand the production capacity of its pharmaceutical area. Furthermore, according to The Korea Heraldalso aims to “diversify its portfolio of biosimilar products”.
On the other hand, a point that has drawn attention has been the null mention of the battery business for electric cars and their interference in this investment plan. An interesting question, especially since Reuters has recently reported on the incipient alliance between Samsung SDI and Stellantis to install a battery factory in the United States.
That Samsung has a finger on every edge of the modern technology industry is not new. However, it is still shocking that such an important financial outlay is committed to a context of international uncertainty caused by the increase in inflation, the outbreak of coronavirus and the war between Russia and Ukraine.