Samsung Electronics Co must adopt a “do-or-die” mindset to confront the challenges posed by artificial intelligence (AI) that are upending the industry, Yonhap news cited chairman Jay Y. Lee as saying yesterday.
Samsung has been struggling to meet Nvidia Corp’s requirements, as rival SK Hynix Inc has become the titan’s main supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips for its AI graphics processing units.
The world’s largest memorychip maker in October last year acknowledged that it was facing a “crisis” and admitted questions had arisen about its “fundamental technological competitiveness and the future of the company.”
Photo: Jung Yeon-je, AFP
“Samsung is facing a do-or-die survival issue. We need to reflect deeply from the top,” Lee was quoted as saying during a training for top executives.
Lee’s message was to emphasize that “what matters is not the crisis itself, but the attitude in dealing with it,” Yonhap reported, citing company sources.
Lee also said that “even if it means sacrificing short-term profits, we must invest for the future,” Yonhap added.
A Samsung spokesperson yesterday said that Lee had not “said the message himself” without giving further details.
Separately, South Korean semiconductor exports to China plunged last month, deepening concerns about a cooling in global demand already threatened by US tariffs, as Washington steps up its restrictions on technology supplies to Beijing.
Chip sales to the world’s second-largest economy, including Hong Kong, fell 31.8 percent from a year earlier, the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said on Sunday. That is bigger than the 22.5 percent contraction reported for January and comes after a rally last year that helped fuel South Korea’s economic growth.
The decline at the beginning of this year coincides with the US implementing its export restrictions on cutting-edge semiconductors to China. The US Department of Commerce in December last year slapped fresh curbs on the sale of HBM chips to China.
South Korea’s total semiconductor exports slipped 3 percent from a year earlier last month, ministry data showed.
Declining prices in conventional memory chips and a technological transition in semiconductor production were among reasons the growth in exports slowed, the ministry said.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
STILL HOPEFUL: Delayed payment of NT$5.35 billion from an Indian server client sent its earnings plunging last year, but the firm expects a gradual pickup ahead Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), the world’s No. 5 PC vendor, yesterday reported an 87 percent slump in net profit for last year, dragged by a massive overdue payment from an Indian cloud service provider. The Indian customer has delayed payment totaling NT$5.35 billion (US$162.7 million), Asustek chief financial officer Nick Wu (吳長榮) told an online earnings conference. Asustek shipped servers to India between April and June last year. The customer told Asustek that it is launching multiple fundraising projects and expected to repay the debt in the short term, Wu said. The Indian customer accounted for less than 10 percent to Asustek’s
‘DECENT RESULTS’: The company said it is confident thanks to an improving world economy and uptakes in new wireless and AI technologies, despite US uncertainty Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it plans to build a new server manufacturing factory in the US this year to address US President Donald Trump’s new tariff policy. That would be the second server production base for Pegatron in addition to the existing facilities in Taoyuan, the iPhone assembler said. Servers are one of the new businesses Pegatron has explored in recent years to develop a more balanced product lineup. “We aim to provide our services from a location in the vicinity of our customers,” Pegatron president and chief executive officer Gary Cheng (鄭光治) told an online earnings conference yesterday. “We
LEAK SOURCE? There would be concern over the possibility of tech leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday stayed mum after a report said that the chipmaker has pitched chip designers Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Broadcom Inc about taking a stake in a joint venture to operate Intel Corp’s factories. Industry sources told the Central News Agency (CNA) that the possibility of TSMC proposing to operate Intel’s wafer fabs is low, as the Taiwanese chipmaker has always focused on its core business. There is also concern over possible technology leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, Concord Securities Co (康和證券) analyst Kerry Huang (黃志祺)
It was late morning and steam was rising from water tanks atop the colorful, but opaque-windowed, “soapland” sex parlors in a historic Tokyo red-light district. Walking through the narrow streets, camera in hand, was Beniko — a former sex worker who is trying to capture the spirit of the area once known as Yoshiwara through photography. “People often talk about this neighborhood having a ‘bad history,’” said Beniko, who goes by her nickname. “But the truth is that through the years people have lived here, made a life here, sometimes struggled to survive. I want to share that reality.” In its mid-17th to
RSS