Samsung Electronics

Samsung Electronics is a South Korean company founded on 13 January 1969 as Samsung Electric Industries. According to the business report it files with Korea's Financial Supervisory Service, it went public on 11 June 1975 and took its present name by shareholder resolution on 28 February 1984. It is headquartered in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. At the end of 2025 it had 308 consolidated subsidiaries, and its two representative directors were Jun Young-hyun (appointed in March 2025) and Roh Tae-moon (appointed in November 2025).

Four businesses

The business report divides the company into two divisions and two groups of subsidiaries.

Divisional figures include intersegment sales. Company-wide revenue in 2025 was 333.6 trillion won, up 10.9%, and operating profit 43.6 trillion won.

For the DX division the business report claims twenty consecutive years as the world's top-selling TV maker, from 2006 to 2025, and fifteen years of global leadership in mobile since 2011. In the outside research it cites, its 2025 global shares were 29.1% in TVs (Omdia, by value) and 19.2% in smartphones (TechInsights, by units). The start of the Galaxy smartphone line is in the entry on the Galaxy S (2010). Samsung was also one of the nine companies that jointly set the basic Blu-ray Disc specifications, and one of the makers of the first Chromebooks.

The weight shifts to semiconductors

Lined up by division, the figures show how far the company's centre of gravity has moved in three years.

Revenue shares are each division's revenue, including intersegment sales, divided by company revenue, so they add to more than 100% (business report and half-year report). Revenue in the first half of 2026 was 305.4 trillion won, nearly double the year before (up 98.7%). DS revenue rose 294.7%, and the DS division earned 97.4% of operating profit.

Memory and HBM

The business report says the memory business continues to lead the world memory market, but the DRAMeXchange figures it cites for global DRAM share, by value, have moved around.

On high bandwidth memory for AI servers, Samsung said in its results of January 2026 that it would begin delivering HBM4 in the first quarter, with the aim of re-establishing a leadership position in the high-end HBM market. Its 2026 half-year report says it expanded HBM4 supply and became the first in the industry to ship HBM4E samples to major customers (both company claims). The leak and ban that followed staff use of generative AI inside the company are in the entry on Samsung's ChatGPT leak (2023).

Foundry

The DS division also includes a foundry business that manufactures chips designed by other companies. Samsung began mass production of first-generation 2 nm products in the fourth quarter of 2025 and began shipping 4 nm HBM base dies, the logic chips at the bottom of a memory stack. It plans mass production of second-generation 2 nm mobile products in the second half of 2026. TrendForce estimates that Samsung Foundry took 5.9% of top-ten foundry revenue in the second quarter of 2026, a distant second to TSMC at 72.5%.

Key events

• 13 January 1969: Founded as Samsung Electric Industries.
• 11 June 1975: Listed on the Korean securities market.
• 28 February 1984: Renamed Samsung Electronics by shareholder resolution.
• 2006: Becomes the world's top-selling TV maker (twenty years running to 2025, the company says).
• June 2010: Launches the Galaxy S.
• May 2023: Bans generative AI use at work.
• Q4 2025: Begins mass production of first-generation 2 nm.
• 2026: Begins HBM4 supply and expands it in the second quarter; ships HBM4E samples to major customers (company claim).

Key figures

• 2025 (K-IFRS, consolidated): revenue 333.6 trillion won (up 10.9%) / operating profit 43.6 trillion won / R&D 37.7 trillion won, a record
• First half of 2026: revenue 305.4 trillion won (up 98.7%); DS division revenue 209.2 trillion won and operating profit 142.9 trillion won

Its place in the group

Samsung Electronics belongs to South Korea's Samsung group. According to the business report, at the end of 2025 its largest shareholder was Samsung Life Insurance with 8.51% of common shares, while the affiliates Samsung C&T held 5.05% and Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance 1.49%. In the founding family, Lee Jae-yong held 1.65% and Hong Ra-hee 1.49%. Samsung Life Insurance's own largest shareholder is Samsung C&T (19.34%), so Samsung C&T is linked to Samsung Electronics both directly and through Samsung Life.

The company's figures swing heavily with memory demand. The DS division lost 14.88 trillion won at the operating level in 2023 and earned 142.86 trillion won in the first half of 2026 alone. Over the same period operating profit in the DX division, home to appliances and smartphones, ran at 12–14 trillion won a year, and was 2.15 trillion won in the first half of 2026. A company long known for smartphones and televisions now earns almost all of its profit from semiconductors. The dip in its DRAM share in 2025 and the recovery in the first half of 2026 coincide with the period in which Samsung itself set the goal of regaining leadership in high-end HBM.