Samsung, from noodles to chips: the AI challenge for the 233 billion giant

Electronics entered Samsung's history relatively late. In 1969, Samsung Electric Industries, the nucleus of what we know today as Samsung Electronics, was founded with a plant in Suwon. The mission seems so small compared to what is now Samsung, but it has in nuce what is to come: to produce black and white television sets under licence from Japanese manufacturers.

In the 1970s, the group invested in four key divisions, electronic components, electromechanics, display glass and semiconductors, and in 1974 took over a small local chip manufacturer. It was a risky decision at a time when Korea was still primarily an agricultural and low-cost manufacturing country, but it was the piece that would change the conglomerate's history.

At the end of the 1980s, the succession passed to the founder's son, Lee Kun-hee. It was he who made the breakthrough that led Samsung away from its image as a low-cost, low-quality manufacturer.

The new strategy focuses on three pillars: semiconductors, displays and mid- to high-end consumer products. In 1992, Samsung became the world's first manufacturer of memory chips; in 1995, it presented its first liquid crystal display and within a few years became the global leader in that segment as well.

From 2000 onwards, the strategy yields measurable results. Samsung became the world's leading TV manufacturer from the mid-2000s and has maintained this position to this day, with a range from entry-level models to large QLED screens and 'designer' devices such as the Frame TV, designed to look like a painting when switched off.

The Galaxy ecosystem, launched in 2010 with the first Android-based models, became the driving force behind international growth and the main competitor to Apple's iPhones.

The semiconductor division consolidated as the most profitable in the group. In 2017 Samsung overtook Intel in terms of turnover and confirmed its position as one of the world leaders in Dram and Nand memories, crucial components for PCs, servers and data centres.

Today, Samsung Electronics is the Korean company with the highest turnover in the Fortune Global 500 and one of the world's largest suppliers of components for third parties, including Apple, for which it produces memory, displays and photo modules.

In terms of governance, the conglomerate has to deal with the consequences of the major South Korean political crisis of 2016-2017. The founder's grandson, Lee Jae-yong, is convicted of corruption in connection with the scandal that led to the ousting of President Park Geun-hye and serves alternating periods of imprisonment and parole. In 2022, he received a presidential pardon and was appointed chairman of Samsung Electronics; in 2024, the Supreme Court upheld his acquittal in another case related to the merger between two group companies.

These episodes fuel the internal debate on the concentration of power in the chaebols and the relationship between business and politics. At the same time, they show the group's ability to continue to attract capital and talent despite the cyclical nature of its reputational crises.

The competitive environment has been changing in recent years. Yes, even in 2025 Apple and Samsung remain the world's top two smartphone manufacturers: Apple ends the year in first place with 19.7% of the market (247.8 million units), ahead of Samsung with 19.1% (241.2 million), according to Idc. But behind them the Chinese brands Xiaomi, vivo and Oppo continue to grow. Together they account for just under a third of global sales.

Pressure is also increasing at the high end of other segments, such as televisions, where players like Tcl compete on price and incremental innovation.

The traditional rivalry with Apple (culminating in a long legal battle over smartphone patents, which ended in an out-of-court settlement in 2018) is thus joined by a multi-polar challenge: defending margins and brands at the top, without ceding too much ground on volumes at the bottom.

One of the most symbolic moves of recent years fits into this scenario: in 2025, the appointment of Italian Mauro Porcini as Samsung Electronics' first chief design officer, coming from experience as head of global design at 3M and PepsiCo.

Its mandate is to rethink the entire Samsung range as an 'ecosystem of experiences', where products and services talk to each other and anticipate user needs and desires.