Samsung elevates chip division chief as it prepares for a comeback

Samsung Electronics granted more responsibility to its chip business head just six months after the executive took the helm, a signal of the company’s resolve to catch SK Hynix in the AI market.

Jun Young-hyun, appointed in May to lead the semiconductor division, now also takes on the role of co-chief executive officer. That grants him direct oversight of the department’s day-to-day operations. He will personally oversee the memory division, an unusual move as the job typically falls to an executive who reports to him.

The current head of the memory arm, Lee Jung-bae, will step aside and become an adviser, according to the company. And it appointed a new head for its contract or foundry division, Han Jinman.

The move comes as investors remain cautious about Samsung’s ability to claw its way back into the market for high-bandwidth memory chips, designed to work with Nvidia’s accelerators to train artificial intelligence models. It has struggled to get its latest products certified by Nvidia – providing an unusually long window for smaller rivals SK Hynix and Micron Technology to carve out substantial leads in a lucrative arena.

The company remains exposed to weak mobile chip sales, while grappling with the rising supply of legacy chips from China. Korea’s largest company has also made little progress against Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company in outsourced chipmaking, and is facing tough competition in sluggish markets for smartphones.

Jun apologised for Samsung’s disappointing results in October and warned the company has to change its workplace culture and processes.

It began laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce global headcount by thousands of jobs, Bloomberg News reported in October. This month, Samsung announced plans to buy back about 10 trillion won (US$7.1 billion) of its own stock over the next year.