Samsung’s chip technologies fall behind in early innings of AI game

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. SEOUL : For a major maker of semiconductors such as Samsung Electronics, the artificial-intelligence boom should be a time of great promise. Instead, the South Korean technology giant is whiffing on opportunities and falling behind the early winners of the AI era such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, known as TSMC, and local rival SK Hynix.

Though it is the world’s top memory-chip maker, Samsung is trailing its competitors in high-bandwidth memory chips, a type integral to AI computing. Its business of manufacturing custom chips for outside customers is losing ground to TSMC’s. And its consumer-electronics business, known to people worldwide for its Galaxy smartphones and appliances, is laying off some workers.

Samsung’s vice chairman and head of its semiconductor business, Jun Young-hyun, apologized in a public letter Tuesday, saying the company was failing to meet expectations. “We have caused concerns about our technical competitiveness, with some talking about the crisis facing Samsung," Jun said. He said Samsung would improve its technology and revamp its organizational culture where needed.

On Tuesday, Samsung estimated its operating profit for the July-September quarter was the equivalent of about $6.8 billion. That was nearly four times the figure a year ago but still only about half the recent peak in 2021 when the memory-chip market was enjoying a pandemic-era boom. Full quarterly results are coming at the end of the month.