Samsung

July 16 (Asia Today) — Divisions among Samsung Electronics labor unions are widening as unions representing different business units pursue separate compensation demands and bargaining strategies.

The Samsung Electronics Donghaeng Union, which primarily represents employees in the Device eXperience division, staged a rally Thursday demanding compensation equivalent to about 1,000 company shares per employee.

Meanwhile, the Samsung Electronics branch of the Samsung Group Super-Enterprise Union, whose membership is concentrated in the Device Solutions division, held its first policy committee meeting for the semiconductor business.

The divisions developed from a dispute over performance bonuses and have continued despite the conclusion of companywide wage negotiations.

The Donghaeng union held its rally near the main entrance of Samsung Electronics’ Suwon campus in Gyeonggi Province.

“We strongly condemn management for unilaterally excluding the DX division and reaching a closed-door agreement without transparency,” the union said.

More than 7,000 people were reported to have attended, more than twice the approximately 3,000 participants initially expected by organizers.

Participants wore black and carried signs reading “Same company, same rights,” “Rest in peace, DX” and “Discrimination off, fairness on.”

“Behind the company’s remarkable achievements are the dedication and hard work of DX employees,” the union said. “However, management created an extreme compensation gap between business divisions during the latest negotiations, leaving DX employees feeling excluded and relatively deprived.”

The union called on Samsung Electronics to immediately offer each DX employee compensation equivalent to about 1,000 company shares.

It also demanded that the company secure funding in advance for companywide employee compensation in 2027 and disclose the amount transparently.

The Donghaeng union said it would hold another rally in Seoul’s Seocho District unless the company takes additional action.

Lee Ho-seok, head of the Suwon branch of the National Samsung Electronics Union, attended Thursday’s rally and suggested his union could join forces with Donghaeng over what union leaders described as management’s exclusion of DX employees.

“To create one Samsung Electronics, rights, respect and compensation must be provided equally,” Lee said. “Management must answer our questions.”

The Super-Enterprise Union, meanwhile, held the kickoff meeting of its DS Division Policy Committee on Thursday.

The committee discussed its operating rules, plans for the 2027 wage and collective bargaining negotiations and its response to the company’s Mega Project initiative.

The union said the committee would meet monthly and hold regular consultations with management.

The union is also preparing to request separate bargaining units that would allow employees in the DS and DX divisions to negotiate independently with management.

Choi Seung-ho, chairman of the Super-Enterprise Union’s Samsung Electronics branch, said he intends to secure the change this year.

“The Super-Enterprise Union will responsibly lead the 2027 wage and collective bargaining negotiations rather than participate in joint negotiations,” Choi said. “With about four months remaining before negotiations begin in early December, we will use the policy committee to develop a thorough set of demands.”

The unions began moving separately after Samsung Electronics introduced a special performance bonus for the DS division in May.

As unions increasingly organized along business-unit lines, disputes among them intensified.

As of Thursday, the Super-Enterprise Union had 54,286 members, the Donghaeng union had 28,877 and the National Samsung Electronics Union had 22,826.

The Super-Enterprise Union previously represented a majority of Samsung Electronics’ unionized workforce. Its membership declined after large numbers of DX employees left, while membership in the Donghaeng union and the National Samsung Electronics Union increased.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260716010006332

NEARLY half of Brits identify as the “Chief Vacation Officer” in their friend group – the one who gets holiday plans out of the group chat.

A poll of 2,000 adults found there are six different personalities that make up a group trip, also including the “Busy Bee” who is never free (15 per cent) and the “Ghost” who completely disappears until turning up at the departure gates (10 per cent).

A fifth (20 per cent) identify as the “Snap Happy One” who cannot let a meal or moment pass without snapping a photo and 14 per cent as the “Fluent-ish Friend”, diving into the local language with confidence.

While 11 per cent are self-confessed “Window Shoppers”, who scour social media for recommendations and share them with the group, but never actually book anything.

But the research commissioned by Samsung, which highlights the Galaxy Z Fold7 as the ultimate travel command centre thanks to Multi Window functionality for the modern CVO, found 64 per cent think no getaway would get off the ground without this key role.

From starting the chat to choosing destinations and deciphering endless messages, 53 per cent said the CVO plays an undervalued role in making trips happen.

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To shine a spotlight on their heroic work, Samsung has enlisted the support of Vicky Pattison, a self-confessed Chief Vacation Officer, to explore how travel planning has evolved from a simple booking task into a juggling act across apps and the pride she feels when the plans finally exit the group chat.

Vicky Pattison said: “It’s safe to say I love a holiday, and in my friendship group I am absolutely the lead booker and honestly, I thrive from the challenge.

“What starts as a simple ‘we should all go away’ somehow turns into you sorting dates, comparing hotels, collecting passport details and reminding people to pay you back and I secretly get a kick out of it.

“Everyone loves the holiday once it’s booked, but very few people see what goes into making it happen.”

The research found phones are an increasingly important tool for today’s CVOs, with 67 per cent relying on them to help organise trips, from social media to discover new destinations (40 per cent) and AI platforms to help build the perfect itinerary (42 per cent).

Despite this, 46 per cent still struggle to keep track of the group chat, bookings, and everyone’s preferences in one place.

This planning juggle is no longer confined to laptops or kitchen tables either, with Gen Z turning everyday downtime into personal-admin windows, as 24 per cent admit to planning a holiday during their lunch break or on the commute.

The biggest holiday planning challenges for those who go on group trips included choosing where to stay (27 per cent), collecting everyone’s passport details (11 per cent) and finding dates that work for everyone (42 per cent).

When asked what could make this task easier, 37 per cent would value being able to view flights, hotels, and messages side by side.

While others cited being able to see multiple apps at once (38 per cent), easy multitasking between chats, bookings and itineraries (34 per cent), and a large screen for comparing options more easily (32 per cent) as the device features they would find most useful when planning a group trip.

More than a third (37 per cent) agreed having better tools to support holiday planning would encourage them to organise more trips abroad.

July 10 (Asia Today) — U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick called for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix to expand production in the United States as Micron accelerates a major domestic investment plan, raising questions over whether Washington is signaling continued shortages in artificial intelligence memory chips.

Lutnick referred directly to Samsung and SK Hynix at Micron’s large-scale investment site in the United States. Micron is building a production plant in Clay, N.Y.

Lutnick said he wanted to bring Micron competitors Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix to the United States and have them build production facilities there.

The remarks drew attention in South Korea because Samsung and SK Hynix recently announced plans to invest 800 trillion won, about $530 billion, in the Honam region in southwestern South Korea. Industry officials had already expected Washington to push the Korean chipmakers to increase U.S. investment.

Because Lutnick directly named the two companies and urged investment, attention is now focused on how the remarks could affect Samsung and SK Hynix.

Some analysts also said the call for production investment in the United States, the central market for artificial intelligence, may indicate that memory semiconductors remain in short supply despite debate over whether the chip market is nearing a peak.

Micron said Wednesday it will expand investment in U.S. fabrication plants and technology to more than $250 billion by 2035. The company has set a goal of producing 40% of its DRAM in the United States and will move up part of its New York fabrication plant construction schedule.

Lutnick’s message that he also wants Samsung and SK Hynix to invest locally is fueling expectations that the surge in semiconductor demand could continue for some time.

Some stock market analysts have recently raised concerns that large artificial intelligence data center operators, known as hyperscalers, could slow the pace of investment. But industry officials still expect supply and demand to begin moving toward balance no earlier than 2028.

Others see Lutnick’s remarks as a sign that the U.S. government is reviving pressure for local investment after a quieter period. The comments came one day before SK Hynix’s Nasdaq listing of American depositary receipts, prompting speculation that Washington may want funds raised through the listing to be invested in the United States rather than South Korea.

Since 2025, the United States has imposed reciprocal tariffs and temporary import surcharges. Semiconductors are currently excluded, but the U.S. government has suggested it could impose tariffs of up to 100% on all semiconductor imports. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump pressured memory chipmakers to invest in the United States, saying companies that do not build plants domestically could face 100% tariffs.

With Samsung and SK Hynix recently announcing a combined 800 trillion won investment plan in South Korea, industry observers said pressure for additional U.S. investment could grow. Lutnick’s latest comments were seen as moving in that direction.

Similar views have emerged overseas. Japan’s Nikkei recently said that because Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix together account for about 60% of the global memory market, the U.S. administration could raise monopoly concerns and demand relocation or investment in the United States.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260710010003905

Published on 07/07/2026 – 11:28 GMT+2•Updated
11:34

The South Korean technology giant Samsung said on Tuesday it expects operating profit of about 89.4 trillion won (€51bn) for the April-June quarter, roughly nineteen times the 4.7tr won (€2.7bn) it earned a year earlier and more than it made in the previous three years combined.

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The extraordinary numbers reflect the same force reshaping the memory industry worldwide: the race to build AI data centres has pushed chip prices to record highs.

According to Citi Research, average selling prices for DRAM memory rose 44% quarter on quarter, and NAND flash 53%, as AI demand spilled beyond specialised high-bandwidth memory into the conventional chips that go into phones, servers and PCs, with customers now chasing longer-term supply contracts.

The estimate beat analyst forecasts, but far from celebrating, the market sold.

Samsung shares fell by over 10% before closing nearly 7% lower, dragging rival SK Hynix and the wider Kospi index down with them.

Samsung’s stock has more than doubled this year alone, so a historic quarter was already priced in, and leveraged local ETF products tracking the shares have made them prone to outsized moves.

There was also a blemish in the numbers as revenue of 171tr won (€97.6bn), though up 129% year on year, came in slightly below forecasts.

“We believe the slight revenue miss was largely driven by more moderate DRAM price hikes than expected, which likely spooked investors who are increasingly pricing in structural strength in memory prices,” said Jing Jie Yu, an analyst at Morningstar.

Hanging over everything is durability.

Investors are increasingly asking whether the technology giants bankrolling the AI build-out can sustain their spending without piling up debt against a payoff that remains unproven, the worry behind last week’s chip sell-off across Asia.

Samsung publishes its full results, with a breakdown by division, on 30 July, a report the market will scour for clues about whether the boom is structural or simply another memory cycle nearing its peak.

Additional sources • AP

South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics says it expects to post a 19-fold jump in its profits, driven by global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips.

The company forecast that it made 89tn won (£44bn; $58bn) between the start of April and the end of June, marking its third record quarterly operating profits in a row.

Major South Korean firms like Samsung release forecasts of their earnings ahead of official detailed reports to help guide investors.

Samsung’s latest forecast, released on Tuesday ahead of its full results due later in July, comes as demand for semiconductors continues to outstrip supplies – which has pushed up prices.

Samsung said in its preview, known as earnings guidance, that it brought in around 171tn won of sales during the quarter, more than double the amount for the same period last year.

The company’s projected earnings mark one of “the best quarterly performances ever”, which was close to the tech sector record set by Nvidia earlier this year, said industry analyst Marc Einstein from Counterpoint Research.

“This has everything to do with the AI boom as memory companies continue to ride a tidal wave driven by limited supply and unprecedented demand,” he added.

Samsung is one of the world’s biggest semiconductor manufacturers, making chips for firms like Nvidia and Google. The shares major tech firms have soared in recent months due to surging demand for chips.

Shares in Samsung have more than doubled in price since the start of this year, while South Korean rival SK Hynix has jumped by more than 200%.

The strong performance of both firms has helped lift the value of South Korea’s benchmark share index, the Kospi, by more than 80% this year.

July 3 (Asia Today) — Anthropic, the developer of the Claude artificial intelligence model, is in early discussions with Samsung Electronics about manufacturing a custom AI chip, according to a U.S. technology news report.

The Information reported Thursday, citing multiple people familiar with the discussions, that Anthropic is considering using Samsung’s 2-nanometer manufacturing process and advanced chip-packaging facilities.

The project remains at an early stage. Anthropic has not begun detailed chip design, testing or manufacturing, the report said.

Samsung’s 2-nanometer process is among the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing technologies available. Smaller manufacturing nodes can allow more transistors to be placed on a chip, potentially improving computing performance and energy efficiency.

Advanced packaging places processors, high-bandwidth memory and other chip components closer together. The shorter distance can increase data-transfer speeds and reduce bottlenecks when running large AI models.

Anthropic is studying the functions and performance required for the chip as well as how it could be integrated into servers, people familiar with the matter said. The company is also reportedly holding discussions with several chip-design companies.

Anthropic is considering using processors developed by Microsoft and British chip startup Fractile as it evaluates different approaches to expanding its computing infrastructure.

The company hired Clive Chan in June. Chan was the second hardware engineer to join OpenAI’s custom-chip program and worked on the project from its early stages.

Chan announced his departure from OpenAI and move to Anthropic in a June 7 post on the social media platform X. He said he was drawn by the opportunity to begin climbing a new technological mountain from the bottom.

The recruitment suggests Anthropic is building an internal team capable of designing specialized processors as competition with OpenAI expands from AI models into hardware and data-center infrastructure.

Anthropic raised $65 billion in a Series H investment round completed May 28, giving the company a post-investment valuation of $965 billion.

The funding was led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks and Sequoia Capital. Samsung Electronics, SK hynix and Micron participated as strategic infrastructure partners.

Anthropic said the three semiconductor companies provide technologies that play important roles in supplying memory, storage and logic chips.

Samsung is the only one of the three companies that also operates a large contract chip-manufacturing business, raising expectations that its relationship with Anthropic could expand beyond memory supplies.

A manufacturing agreement with Anthropic would give Samsung another major AI customer as the South Korean chipmaker seeks to challenge Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. in the market for advanced processors.

Samsung previously signed a $16.5 billion agreement to manufacture next-generation AI chips for Tesla. Google is also reportedly considering using Samsung to manufacture part of a future tensor processing unit.

The potential Anthropic contract could strengthen Samsung’s position as demand for alternatives to Taiwan Semiconductor’s manufacturing capacity increases.

Major technology companies are developing specialized processors to reduce computing costs, improve energy efficiency and gain greater control over their AI infrastructure.

Google has developed several generations of its tensor processing units, while Amazon Web Services operates its Trainium processors for AI training.

OpenAI and Broadcom unveiled Jalapeño, OpenAI’s first custom inference processor, on June 24. Inference refers to the process through which a trained AI model generates responses to user requests.

OpenAI said the processor was developed from initial design to production in nine months. Early deployment is expected by the end of the year.

Broadcom Chief Executive Officer Hock Tan described Jalapeño as the beginning of a multigeneration processor roadmap. The companies plan to install the chips in large-scale data centers operated with partners including Microsoft.

Anthropic said its custom-chip work would not replace its existing relationships with hardware suppliers.

“Nvidia GPUs, Google TPUs and AWS Trainium chips will continue to play a central role in our computing resources,” the company said in response to a request for comment from The Information.

South Korea on Monday unveiled a wider semiconductor investment plan under which Samsung and SK hynix are expected to invest about 800 trillion won ($523 billion) over the next decade.

The plan includes four new semiconductor fabrication plants and expanded production of high-bandwidth memory and advanced packaging technologies used in AI systems.

Samsung has faced yield problems in some previous advanced manufacturing processes. Yield refers to the percentage of usable chips produced from each semiconductor wafer.

The performance and production stability of Samsung’s 2-nanometer process are therefore expected to be critical to its ability to compete with Taiwan Semiconductor for major AI-chip orders.

An industry official said Samsung has become more selective about accepting manufacturing orders, focusing resources on projects considered commercially and technologically viable.

Anthropic is entering the custom-chip competition later than several major AI and cloud-computing companies. However, rapidly rising demand for AI infrastructure is creating opportunities for specialized processors.

TrendForce projects that shipments of servers using cloud companies’ custom application-specific integrated circuits will grow 44.6% in 2026. Shipments of servers using general-purpose graphics processors are expected to grow 16.1%.

Nvidia remains the dominant supplier of AI processors, but the development of chips by OpenAI, Google, Amazon and other technology companies could gradually reduce their reliance on its hardware.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260703010001110

June 5 (Asia Today) — Samsung Electronics said Friday it will launch a monthlong customer appreciation campaign worth 400 billion won, or about $261 million, as part of a broader social contribution plan linked to strong performance in its semiconductor business.

The campaign, called “Together With the People, Samsung Electronics Appreciation Festival,” will begin Monday. Customers who buy Samsung Electronics products during the event will receive Onnuri gift certificates equal to 20% of the purchase price, the company said.

Onnuri gift certificates can be used like cash at traditional markets and small neighborhood businesses across South Korea. Samsung said it chose the certificates instead of direct discounts to help stimulate local economies and support small merchants.

The event is part of Samsung Electronics’ earlier pledge to expand social contributions by 5 trillion won, or about $3.26 billion, over the next five years. The company announced the plan after reaching a labor-management agreement last month, saying it would invest in “mutual growth and a healthy ecosystem” as well as “future talent development.”

Samsung said soldiers, police officers, firefighters and correctional officers, which the company refers to as “K-heroes,” will receive a 30% benefit when buying products through the Samsung Electronics Family Mall. More than 700,000 people are expected to be eligible.

Samsung Electronics has operated a separate “K-Hero Family Festa” since 2024 to provide price benefits to members of the military, police, fire services and correctional service.

“The dedication and sacrifice of K-heroes made South Korea one of the safest countries in the world, and Samsung Electronics was able to achieve strong performance and growth thanks to that,” the company said. “The program is intended to honor the devotion and hard work of the heroes around us and express our gratitude and support.”

Samsung is also reviewing additional social contribution measures, including support for partner companies, inclusive finance and artificial intelligence talent development.

The company said those plans may include strengthening the competitiveness of industrial ecosystems through supplier support, expanding financial access for vulnerable groups and small business owners and increasing university-industry cooperation to train talent in AI and other future industries.

“We will continue to think deeply about what role a company should play in our society while considering the expectations of the people,” Samsung Electronics said. “As a company that grows together with society, we will faithfully carry out our responsibilities and role.”

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260605010001833

May 29 (Asia Today) — Samsung Electronics said Friday it shipped samples of its seventh-generation high-bandwidth memory chip, HBM4E, for the first time, demonstrating its competitiveness in advanced semiconductor technology.

The shipment came three months after Samsung began mass shipments of HBM4 in February, raising expectations that the company could expand its share of the HBM market.

Samsung said it supplied 12-layer HBM4E samples to global customers. The company did not identify the customers, but industry officials said the samples were likely supplied to Nvidia, a major buyer of AI chips.

Samsung said the HBM4E shipment goes beyond an expansion of its product lineup and could strengthen the company’s supply capacity and technological edge in the global AI infrastructure market, which is expected to grow rapidly for years.

Samsung said HBM4E operates at 14 gigabits per second to 16 gigabits per second per pin, more than 20% faster than the previous generation. It provides bandwidth of 3.6 terabytes per second in a single stack, improving computing speed for large language models and next-generation AI systems.

The 12-layer HBM4E offers 48 gigabytes of capacity, more than 30% higher than the previous generation. Samsung said it plans to expand the lineup to 32 gigabytes, or eight layers, and 64 gigabytes, or 16 layers, to meet different customer service environments.

The new HBM4E uses Samsung’s 1c DRAM, a sixth-generation 10-nanometer-class DRAM process, and its own 4-nanometer foundry logic die. Samsung said the combination improves process stability, yield and mass production capability.

The company also said low-power design and packaging optimization improved energy efficiency by 16% and thermal resistance characteristics by more than 14% compared with the previous generation.

Samsung’s position in the HBM market is expected to strengthen because the company appears to have moved ahead of competitors in shipping samples. Earlier sample shipments could help Samsung secure customer volume in the next-generation AI memory market.

Samsung ranked second in the global HBM market with a 22% share in the fourth quarter of last year, behind SK hynix, which held 57%, according to Counterpoint Research. Samsung’s share was down sharply from 40% a year earlier, but analysts say its HBM4 mass shipment this year could help it recover.

Global customers have given positive reviews of Samsung’s HBM4 in speed, power efficiency and overall performance, industry officials said. Samsung’s HBM4 received the highest rating in a system-in-package test in December after demonstrating an industry-leading speed of 11.7 gigabits per second.

Analysts say HBM4E could move into mass production quickly because Samsung is already mass-producing HBM4 using the same combination of 1c DRAM and a 4-nanometer base die.

Market watchers also remain optimistic about Samsung’s HBM business.

“The memory market in 2027 is expected to face a deeper supply shortage, and price increases are also likely to gain momentum,” said Kim Dong-won, an analyst at KB Securities. “HBM prices are expected to rise more than 50% from a year earlier as negotiations reflect the narrowing margin gap with general-purpose DRAM.”

Hwang Sang-joon, executive vice president and head of memory development at Samsung Electronics, said the company completed the HBM4E sample supply without disruption after successfully starting HBM4 mass shipments.

“This has clearly imprinted Samsung Electronics’ unmatched technology leadership in the market,” Hwang said. “We will continue to strongly lead growth in the global AI memory market based on overwhelming technology leadership and preemptive investment in production infrastructure.”

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260529010008844

Samsung Electronics Co.’s unionized workers voted to approve a wage agreement that includes a substantial bonus package for chip workers, the union said Wednesday, easing concerns over potential disruptions to the global supply chain.

In the six-day vote, 73.7 percent of the 62,616 members of the tech giant’s two largest unions approved the tentative deal. The agreement was finalized after a majority of eligible voters took part in the vote and a majority voted in favor of the proposal.

Later in the day, the two sides signed the wage agreement, with management pledging to strengthen the company’s global competitiveness.

“Starting with the conclusion of this wage agreement, labor and management will work together as one to strengthen our global competitiveness,” Yeo Myeong-gu, head of the company’s Device Solutions division’s People Team, said in a press release.

The labor union and management reached the agreement just an hour before an 18-day strike was set to begin at the world’s top memory chipmaker last Thursday.

Labor and management had been deadlocked since late last year over performance-based bonuses tied to earnings from the company’s artificial intelligence (AI)-related semiconductor business amid the ongoing global memory chip boom.

Under the deal, Samsung will allocate a special semiconductor performance bonus equivalent to 10.5 percent of business performance earnings, without a cap.

The special bonuses will be paid in company stock over at least 10 years, based on targets for the chip division to achieve more than 200 trillion won (US$132 billion) in annual operating profit from 2026 to 2028 and 100 trillion won from 2029 to 2035.

Of the total bonus pool, 40 percent will be allocated to the division as a whole, while 60 percent will be distributed to individual business units.

Based on forecasts that Samsung’s operating profit could reach 300 trillion won this year, the agreement could translate into bonus payouts of up to 600 million won for each of the 28,000 employees in the company’s profitable chip division.

Following the signing, the company announced it will create a 5 trillion-won fund over the next five years to invest in future talent development and build an ecosystem supporting its suppliers and underprivileged groups.

“Over the next five years, we will raise a total of 5 trillion won to invest in win-win cooperation and building a healthy ecosystem, as well as nurturing future talent,” according to the statement attributed by company executives.

The move is widely seen as an effort to counter criticism that the company has been distributing massive profits from the semiconductor supercycle as excessive employee bonuses.

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Samsung Electronics Co. topped the smartphone markets in Central and South America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia in the first quarter on steady sales of its premium Galaxy S26 and budget Galaxy A series smartphones, industry data showed Monday.

According to the data compiled by industry tracker Omdia, Samsung Electronics sold some 12.9 million units of smartphones in the Central and South American market in the January-March period, accounting for 37 percent of the total 34.8 million smartphones sold there over the cited period.

Omdia said the performance was driven by solid sales of Galaxy A series smartphones as Samsung Electronics responded to market demand with a diversified product lineup.

In the Middle East market, where smartphone sales fell 6 percent on-year to 11 million units in the first quarter, Samsung Electronics led the market with a market share of 34 percent on strong demand for the latest Galaxy S26 and Galaxy A series smartphones.

The company also sold 4.6 million smartphones in the Southeast Asian market, accounting for 21 percent of all smartphones sold there in the first quarter.

Omdia said strong sales of the Galaxy S26 series, launched in January, and steady demand for the Galaxy A series helped Samsung Electronics expand its market share in Southeast Asia, where quarterly smartphone sales fell 9 percent from a year earlier.

Earlier, Omdia said Samsung Electronics ranked No. 1 in the global smartphone market in the first quarter with a 22 percent market share.

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May 22 (Asia Today) — Samsung Electronics labor unions began voting Thursday on a tentative wage agreement, but sharp divisions between the company’s semiconductor and device divisions are emerging as a major source of tension.

Choi Seung-ho, chairman of the Samsung Electronics branch of the Korean Metal Workers’ Union-affiliated Samsung Group labor organization, said he would hand over 2026 negotiations to the remaining union leadership and seek a confidence vote if the agreement is rejected.

“The union must follow the will of its members,” Choi said. “I will not change my direction.”

Samsung Electronics unions began voting on the tentative agreement at 2:12 p.m. Thursday. The vote will continue through Tuesday.

Attention is focused on whether growing conflict between the semiconductor-focused Device Solutions division and the Device Experience division, which oversees consumer electronics and mobile businesses, could affect the outcome.

Under the tentative agreement, employees in the semiconductor division are expected to receive large performance bonuses. Workers in the nonmemory semiconductor business could receive about 200 million won ($146,000), while memory semiconductor employees could receive up to 600 million won ($437,000).

By contrast, DX division employees are expected to receive company stock worth about 6 million won ($4,400). Additional performance bonuses also appear uncertain due to weaker business results this year.

Labor groups with many DX employees, including the Donghaeng union and the Suwon branch of the National Samsung Electronics Union, strongly criticized the agreement as rushed and overly centered on memory chip workers.

The Donghaeng union also claimed its members were excluded from the vote, raising concerns about voting rights.

The umbrella union organization said voting rights apply only to union members listed as of 2 p.m. Wednesday within labor groups participating in the joint bargaining body.

Donghaeng union officials, however, said the umbrella union had previously told member unions by email that all voting rights would be respected before later reversing its position.

The Donghaeng union reportedly grew from about 2,600 members to 12,000 members, most believed to be from the DX division.

Some DX employees argue the semiconductor division’s current profits were made possible in part because DX business performance supported companywide investment during weaker periods for semiconductors.

Complaints have also continued during negotiations that discussions were centered on the semiconductor division rather than the DX business. Some workers have even filed a court injunction seeking to invalidate the bargaining process.

For the agreement to pass, more than half of eligible union members must participate and a majority of votes cast must support the deal.

Samsung Electronics employs about 77,300 workers in the semiconductor division and about 51,700 in the DX division. The umbrella union has about 57,290 members, while the National Samsung Electronics Union has about 8,176 members.

If the agreement is rejected, negotiations would resume and the possibility of a strike could increase.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260522010006743