Samsung

Samsung is a South Korean technology company best known internationally through Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., whose businesses span smartphones, televisions, home appliances, semiconductors, display technology, network equipment and automotive electronics. What makes Samsung distinctive is the breadth of its technology stack: it sells finished consumer products while also designing or manufacturing many of the components and technologies that power modern devices.

Last updated: August 2026

About Samsung

Samsung's wider business origins date to 1938, when Lee Byung-chul established a trading business in Korea. Samsung Electronics was established later, in 1969, and developed into the technology company responsible for businesses such as Galaxy smartphones, televisions, home appliances and semiconductors.

The distinction between Samsung and Samsung Electronics matters. Samsung commonly refers to the broader Samsung business group, while Samsung Electronics is a specific publicly listed technology company with its own management, financial statements, workforce and operating divisions.

Samsung Electronics is headquartered in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. At the end of 2025, the company reported 259,149 employees and 221 global bases across 76 countries. Its scale supports an unusually broad operating model that combines consumer electronics, advanced components, manufacturing, software ecosystems and research.

Samsung's importance therefore extends beyond the products carrying its logo. Its semiconductor, display and manufacturing capabilities also place it deep inside the supply chains behind smartphones, computers, data centers, automobiles and other digital systems.

What Does Samsung Do?

Samsung Electronics operates across both finished products and technology components.

Its consolidated business is centered around four major areas:

• Device eXperience (DX) — consumer and enterprise products including smartphones, televisions, home appliances, computers and network systems.

• Device Solutions (DS) — semiconductors, including memory, System LSI and foundry manufacturing.

• Samsung Display (SDC) — display panels, including OLED technology.

• Harman — automotive electronics and consumer audio.

Samsung's 2025 business reporting describes the company as a global electronics business whose operations include DX, DS, Samsung Display and Harman.

Device eXperience (DX)

DX contains many of Samsung's customer-facing businesses.

Its major activities include:

• Galaxy smartphones and mobile devices

• televisions and monitors

• refrigerators, washing machines and other appliances

• computers

• telecommunications network systems

• health and medical equipment

The division is where Samsung's hardware, software, design, branding and connected-device strategy meet the end customer.

Device Solutions (DS)

DS is Samsung's semiconductor division.

It includes:

• Memory

• System LSI

• Foundry

Memory products include technologies such as DRAM and NAND flash. System LSI develops logic and sensor technologies, while Foundry manufactures semiconductor chips.

The DS division makes Samsung fundamentally different from a company that only designs and sells consumer devices. Samsung participates directly in the component and manufacturing layers of the technology industry.

Samsung Display

Samsung Display develops and manufactures display panels, including OLED products used across categories such as smartphones, laptops, monitors and televisions.

Its display expertise is particularly important in areas such as flexible and foldable screens, where advances in component technology can directly enable new device designs.

Harman

Harman extends Samsung into automotive electronics, connected-car technology and audio.

Samsung completed its acquisition of Harman in 2017, with Harman continuing to operate as a standalone subsidiary. The acquisition gave Samsung a larger position in automotive technology without requiring it to manufacture vehicles itself.

Samsung Business Model

Samsung's business model is best understood as a vertically integrated technology system rather than a collection of unrelated products.

The company participates across several layers of the value chain:

A conventional smartphone company may design devices but source most of its displays, memory and semiconductor manufacturing from outside suppliers. A semiconductor manufacturer may operate sophisticated factories without having a major consumer brand.

Samsung operates across both sides.

That structure can create several advantages.

Control over critical technologies. Samsung has direct capabilities in components that influence the performance, cost and design of finished devices.

Manufacturing scale. Large manufacturing operations support both Samsung's own products and wider component markets.

Diversification across technology markets. Smartphones, appliances, semiconductors, displays and automotive electronics respond to different customers and market cycles.

Cross-business technology development. Expertise developed in one area can potentially support another, such as display technology enabling new mobile-device formats.

Vertical integration also creates significant costs. Semiconductor fabs and large research programs require enormous capital, and managing businesses with very different customers and technology cycles adds organizational complexity.

Samsung can even find itself supplying technology to companies that compete against it elsewhere. A company may therefore be a Samsung customer in one market and a competitor in another.

How Does Samsung Make Money?

Samsung Electronics earns revenue from several major business areas rather than relying on one product category.

For 2025, Samsung reported KRW 333.6 trillion in consolidated revenue and KRW 43.6 trillion in operating profit. Its financial reporting also shows how large its principal businesses have become.

Samsung's sustainability reporting describes these percentages as based on net sales by division. Because businesses within the consolidated group can transact with one another, divisional revenue figures should not simply be added together and treated as consolidated external revenue.

Device Sales

DX remains Samsung's largest business by divisional sales.

Revenue comes from products including smartphones, televisions, monitors, home appliances, computers and network systems.

The Galaxy business is particularly important because it combines premium devices, mass-market smartphones and a broader ecosystem of tablets and wearables.

Semiconductor Revenue

The DS division generates revenue from memory products, System LSI technologies and semiconductor manufacturing.

Its financial performance can fluctuate considerably with memory pricing, capacity utilization and semiconductor demand.

Samsung's FY2025 results showed a substantial improvement in DS profitability as memory-market conditions strengthened, illustrating how semiconductor cycles can materially affect the company's consolidated performance.

Display Revenue

Samsung Display earns revenue from the production and sale of display panels.

Its business serves technology markets in which display quality, efficiency, flexibility and form factor can be important product differentiators.

Automotive and Audio Revenue

Harman generates revenue through automotive electronics and audio products.

Its business provides Samsung with exposure to the automotive technology market, including connected-vehicle systems, digital cockpits and car audio.

Products and Services

Samsung's product portfolio spans consumer electronics, enterprise technology and components.

Galaxy Smartphones and Mobile Devices

Galaxy is Samsung's principal mobile-device brand.

The portfolio includes multiple smartphone categories as well as tablets, wearables and accessories.

Galaxy matters to Samsung not only because of device sales, but because it gives the company a platform for connecting personal technology across multiple product categories.

TVs and Monitors

Samsung develops and sells televisions and monitors across consumer and professional markets.

Display products have been part of Samsung Electronics' business since its early history and remain an important part of the DX division.

H3: Home Appliances

Samsung's appliance business includes products such as:

• refrigerators

• washing machines

• air conditioners

• cooking appliances

• other connected household devices

The business increasingly overlaps with SmartThings, allowing compatible appliances to participate in Samsung's connected-home ecosystem.

SmartThings

SmartThings is Samsung's connected-device platform.

It provides a software layer for managing and automating compatible devices across categories such as smartphones, televisions, appliances and smart-home equipment.

Its strategic value lies in connecting product categories that might otherwise have little relationship after purchase.

Memory Semiconductors

Samsung produces memory technologies including DRAM and NAND flash.

These technologies are used in smartphones, PCs, servers, storage systems and data centers.

Advanced memory has become increasingly important as AI infrastructure places greater demands on computing performance and data movement.

System LSI

System LSI develops semiconductor technologies such as processors and sensors.

Its role differs from Samsung's Memory business because these chips primarily perform processing or specialized functions rather than simply storing information.

Foundry

Samsung Foundry manufactures semiconductor chips.

This gives Samsung a position in chip fabrication as well as chip design and memory production.

Samsung's 2026 corporate-value plan also identifies memory, foundry and advanced packaging as parts of its intended integrated AI-semiconductor offering.

Network Systems

Samsung develops telecommunications network equipment.

This gives the company a role in both the devices connecting to mobile networks and parts of the infrastructure supporting those connections.

Automotive Electronics and Audio

Through Harman, Samsung participates in:

• automotive electronics

• connected-car technology

• digital cockpits

• vehicle audio

• consumer and professional audio

This business expands Samsung's reach beyond traditional consumer electronics.

Customers and Markets

Samsung serves both consumers and businesses, which is another consequence of its broad operating model.

Consumers

Consumer customers buy products including:

• Galaxy smartphones and tablets

• televisions

• monitors

• home appliances

• wearables

• audio products

These products make Samsung one of the most visible consumer technology brands globally.

Technology and Enterprise Customers

Samsung's component businesses serve a different customer base.

Semiconductor, display and foundry customers can include:

• electronics manufacturers

• computing companies

• data-center operators

• semiconductor designers

• automotive companies

• other technology businesses

Samsung may therefore compete with a company in finished products while simultaneously participating in that company's technology supply chain.

Automotive Customers

Through Harman, Samsung serves automotive manufacturers and other customers requiring connected-vehicle systems, infotainment, digital cockpit technologies and audio.

H3: Geographic Markets

Samsung Electronics operates globally.

For 2025, Samsung reported net sales by region of:

The Americas were Samsung's largest regional market by reported net sales in 2025.

Competitors

Samsung does not have one universal competitor because its businesses operate across several different industries.

Smartphones

Samsung competes globally with smartphone manufacturers including:

• Apple

• Xiaomi

• OPPO

• vivo

IDC reported that Samsung held 21.2% of worldwide smartphone shipments in Q1 2026, compared with 21.0% for Apple and 11.5% for Xiaomi.

Competition occurs across premium smartphones, foldable devices, mid-range products, software ecosystems and geographic markets.

Memory Semiconductors

Samsung's major memory competitors include:

• SK hynix

• Micron

• CXMT in parts of the memory market

TrendForce identifies Samsung, SK hynix and Micron among the major global DRAM producers, with CXMT becoming increasingly significant in mobile DRAM.

Semiconductor Foundry

Samsung Foundry competes with companies including:

• TSMC

• SMIC

• GlobalFoundries

• UMC

• other specialized foundries

TSMC remains the dominant competitor in advanced foundry manufacturing. TrendForce reported Samsung as the second-largest foundry by revenue in Q2 2025, though with a substantial gap behind TSMC.

Consumer Electronics and Appliances

Samsung competes with different companies depending on the product category.

Rivals can include brands such as:

• LG

• Sony

• TCL

• Hisense

• other regional and global appliance manufacturers

The competitive factors vary by market and include price, product quality, brand strength, software, distribution and ecosystem integration.

Display Technology

Samsung Display competes with other major display manufacturers in technologies including OLED and advanced display panels.

Competition centers on production scale, display quality, manufacturing yields, technology development and customer relationships.

Company History

Samsung's development is best understood through the major capabilities it added over time.

Samsung began as a trading business rather than an electronics manufacturer. Samsung Electronics emerged decades later, and its expansion into semiconductors proved especially important because it moved the company deeper into the underlying technology behind electronic products.

The Galaxy era strengthened Samsung's global consumer identity, while semiconductor and display businesses continued to expand behind the scenes.

The acquisition of Harman added another major technology market—automotive electronics—and the 2020s have increasingly focused on AI, high-performance memory, advanced manufacturing and connected devices.

Leadership

Samsung Electronics currently uses a co-CEO structure aligned with its major operating divisions.

Young Hyun Jun

Young Hyun Jun serves as Vice Chairman and CEO and leads the Device Solutions division.

He also heads Samsung's Memory Business, placing him at the center of Samsung's semiconductor strategy at a time when AI infrastructure and advanced memory are major investment priorities.

Tae Moon Roh

Tae Moon Roh serves as President and CEO and leads the Device eXperience division.

He also heads the Mobile eXperience business, which includes Samsung's Galaxy mobile operations.

Samsung's 2026 governance materials confirm the two-executive CEO structure.

The division of leadership reflects the fundamentally different economics of Samsung's consumer-device and semiconductor businesses.

Ownership, Subsidiaries and Corporate Structure

Samsung Electronics is a publicly listed South Korean company and part of the wider Samsung business group.

Its consolidated operations include hundreds of subsidiaries and entities around the world. Samsung's 2025 reporting describes a global structure containing 308 subsidiaries, including overseas production and sales companies, Samsung Display-related subsidiaries and Harman entities.

Its principal business structure includes:

• Device eXperience

• Device Solutions

• Samsung Display

• Harman

Samsung Electronics is therefore not simply a holding company for consumer brands. It is an operating technology company whose consolidated structure spans manufacturing, sales, R&D and specialized technology businesses.

Samsung Display operates the display-panel business, while Harman functions as a major automotive-electronics and audio subsidiary.

The wider Samsung group also contains companies outside Samsung Electronics, so financial or operating figures from those businesses should not automatically be treated as Samsung Electronics results.

Samsung Strategy

Samsung's current strategy centers on strengthening the connection between AI, semiconductors, devices and adjacent growth industries.

AI Semiconductors

Samsung's 2026 corporate-value plan emphasizes leadership in AI semiconductors, including high-value memory products such as HBM.

The company also plans to strengthen an integrated semiconductor offering spanning memory, foundry and advanced packaging.

This is strategically important because AI creates demand not only for applications running on consumer devices but also for the infrastructure required to train and operate AI systems.

AI Across Devices

Samsung is also integrating AI into consumer products.

Its FY2025 results said the DX division planned to expand AI-driven products and integrate AI more broadly across devices, features and services during 2026.

Samsung's unusually broad device portfolio gives it more potential AI touchpoints than a company operating in only one hardware category.

Connected Ecosystems

Galaxy and SmartThings support Samsung's effort to connect multiple product categories.

A smartphone, wearable, television and home appliance can become part of a wider device environment rather than remaining isolated purchases.

For Samsung, the strategic opportunity is to make the combined ecosystem more valuable than each individual product alone.

Advanced Manufacturing

Samsung continues to invest heavily in semiconductor manufacturing and research.

Its FY2025 results reported KRW 37.7 trillion in R&D investment, reflecting the scale required to compete across advanced chips, memory, displays and consumer electronics.

New Growth Businesses

Samsung's 2026 plans also identify areas such as:

• advanced robotics

• MedTech

• automotive electronics

• HVAC

as potential future-growth opportunities.

These are strategic priorities rather than guaranteed future profit centers.

Key Challenges and Risks

Samsung's broad business model creates opportunities, but it also exposes the company to risks that differ significantly across divisions.

Semiconductor Cycles

Memory pricing and demand can change rapidly.

The DS division's earnings can therefore rise or fall sharply depending on semiconductor supply, pricing, data-center investment and customer demand.

Samsung's FY2025 performance benefited from stronger memory conditions, demonstrating how significantly this cycle can affect consolidated profitability.

Foundry Competition

Samsung faces particularly strong competition in semiconductor foundry manufacturing.

TSMC maintains a large market-share advantage, while advanced-node manufacturing requires high capital expenditure and consistently strong production yields.

Closing that gap is therefore not simply a matter of building new factories; execution and customer confidence are also critical.

Consumer Technology Competition

Samsung competes simultaneously in premium and mass-market consumer technology.

In smartphones alone, competitors range from Apple in premium devices to Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo and other manufacturers across broader price segments.

Maintaining differentiation becomes harder as hardware features mature and software ecosystems become more important.

Capital Intensity

Semiconductor fabs, R&D centers and global manufacturing infrastructure require very large continuing investment.

Vertical integration gives Samsung greater control over technology, but it also exposes the company to high fixed costs when utilization or demand weakens.

Organizational Complexity

Samsung operates across businesses with different customers, economics and development cycles.

A smartphone organization, semiconductor foundry and automotive-electronics subsidiary cannot be managed as though they were one homogeneous business.

That complexity increases the importance of capital allocation and coordination across divisions.

Geopolitical and Supply-Chain Exposure

Semiconductors and electronics operate across international supply chains affected by trade policy, export controls, manufacturing incentives and geopolitical tensions.

For a company with global manufacturing and sales operations, changes in those conditions can affect costs, investment decisions and access to customers.

AI Execution Risk

AI creates major opportunities for Samsung in both devices and semiconductors, but the investment case depends on execution.

Corporate plans to expand AI products or semiconductor capabilities do not guarantee adoption, customer wins or attractive returns.

Key Facts About Samsung

1. Samsung Electronics is not the same entity as the wider Samsung group. The wider business traces its origins to 1938, while Samsung Electronics was established in 1969.

2. Samsung operates on both sides of the technology market. It sells finished products to consumers while also producing components and manufacturing technologies used deeper in the electronics industry.

3. Its business extends well beyond smartphones. Samsung Electronics operates across consumer devices, semiconductors, displays, telecommunications and automotive technology.

4. Samsung's vertical integration is unusual at global scale. Memory, chip manufacturing, displays, consumer devices and connected software all sit within the wider Samsung Electronics ecosystem.

5. AI affects Samsung in two different ways. Samsung can sell AI-enabled consumer products while also supplying semiconductor technologies used in AI infrastructure.

6. The company operates a large global research and manufacturing network. At the end of 2025, Samsung reported 221 global bases across 76 countries.

7. The Americas were Samsung's largest geographic sales market in 2025, accounting for about 40% of reported regional net sales.

8. Samsung Display and Harman broaden the company's technology exposure into display panels, automotive electronics and audio.

9. “Inspire the World, Create the Future” belongs to Samsung's historical Vision 2020 framework. It should not be presented without context as a newly issued 2026 corporate vision.

10. Samsung's scale is both an advantage and a constraint. The company can fund technology development that smaller competitors cannot easily match, but its operating model requires exceptionally high capital investment and organizational coordination.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Samsung?

Samsung commonly refers to the wider South Korean Samsung business group. Its best-known global technology company is Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., which operates across consumer electronics, semiconductors, displays, networks and related technology businesses.

When was Samsung founded?

The wider Samsung business traces its origins to 1938, when Lee Byung-chul established a trading company in Korea.

When was Samsung Electronics founded?

Samsung Electronics was established in 1969 and later developed into Samsung's principal global technology company.

Who founded Samsung?

Samsung was founded by Lee Byung-chul.

Where is Samsung Electronics headquartered?

Samsung Electronics is headquartered in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.

Who is the CEO of Samsung Electronics?

Samsung Electronics currently uses a co-CEO structure. Young Hyun Jun leads Device Solutions, while Tae Moon Roh leads Device eXperience.

What are Samsung's main business divisions?

Samsung Electronics' core operating divisions are Device eXperience (DX) and Device Solutions (DS). Its consolidated business also includes Samsung Display and Harman.

How does Samsung make money?

Samsung earns revenue from consumer devices such as smartphones, televisions and appliances; semiconductor products and manufacturing; display panels; and Harman's automotive-electronics and audio businesses.

Does Samsung manufacture semiconductors?

Yes. Samsung's semiconductor businesses include Memory, System LSI and Foundry.

What is Samsung's mission?

Samsung describes its business philosophy around using talent and technology to create superior products and services that contribute to a better global society.

Is “Inspire the World, Create the Future” Samsung's current vision?

The phrase is associated with Samsung Electronics' historical Vision 2020 framework. It should be identified as historical rather than presented as an undated current 2026 vision statement.

How many employees does Samsung Electronics have?

Samsung Electronics reported 259,149 employees at the end of 2025.

Who are Samsung's main competitors?

Competitors vary by market. Samsung competes with companies such as Apple, Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo in smartphones; SK hynix and Micron in memory; and TSMC and other foundries in semiconductor manufacturing.

Resources:

  Samsung Electronics 2025 Business Report

  Samsung Electronics 2026 Annual General Meeting Materials

  Samsung Electronics Facts & Figures

  Samsung Electronics 2025 Q4 Interim Report

  Samsung Electronics Corporate Disclosures

  IDC Worldwide Smartphone Market Share

  TrendForce Semiconductor Market Research