Samsung Electronics Surpasses Intel to Become World's No.1 Semiconductor Company... Record High Performance Last Year Amid Super Boom (Comprehensive)

Q4 Sales of 76.57 Trillion KRW, Operating Profit of 13.87 Trillion KRW... Record Quarterly Sales
Last Year's Total Sales 279.6 Trillion KRW, Operating Profit 51.63 Trillion KRW... This Year's Sales Expected to Exceed 300 Trillion KRW

Samsung Electronics achieved a record high performance with annual sales exceeding 279 trillion won. Samsung Electronics announced on the 7th that, based on its preliminary consolidated results for last year, sales reached 279.04 trillion won, and operating profit was 51.57 trillion won. The photo shows the Samsung Electronics Seocho building. Photo by Mun Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporters Sunmi Park, Hyeyoung Lee] Samsung Electronics set new records last year with annual sales of 279.6 trillion KRW and operating profit of 51.63 trillion KRW. These figures exceeded the previously announced provisional results, marking the highest sales in the company's history and the third-best operating profit ever. Notably, the semiconductor division recorded sales exceeding 94 trillion KRW last year, surpassing U.S. company Intel to reclaim the global No. 1 position in the semiconductor market for the first time in three years.

Performance Driven by Semiconductors... A New Milestone Achieved

According to Samsung Electronics on the 27th, the Device Solutions (DS) division posted sales of 125.09 trillion KRW last year, with semiconductors accounting for 94.16 trillion KRW. This surpassed Intel’s annual sales of $79 billion (approximately 93.84 trillion KRW), allowing Samsung to reclaim the global No. 1 spot in the semiconductor market after three years.

Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor performance last year exceeded the approximately 86 trillion KRW annual sales recorded during the 2018 supercycle. The proportion of semiconductors in Samsung’s total sales last year was 33.7%, showing that semiconductors led about one-third of the overall business. Although this is slightly lower than the 35.4% recorded during the boom year of 2018, it steadily increased from 28.2% in 2019 and 30.8% in 2020, demonstrating the growing strength of the semiconductor sector. In particular, the company’s core memory semiconductor division posted annual sales of about 72.59 trillion KRW, marking the highest-ever performance in the memory segment (previous record was 72.38 trillion KRW in 2018).

However, the semiconductor division’s operating profit in the fourth quarter last year was 8.84 trillion KRW, slightly down from the third quarter. Samsung explained, “Considering memory market conditions and inventory levels, we refrained from aggressive sales expansion, and factors such as a slight decline in average selling price (ASP) led to a minor decrease in performance compared to the previous quarter.”

The display division recorded fourth-quarter sales of 9.06 trillion KRW and operating profit of 1.32 trillion KRW. Small and medium-sized panels saw improved performance compared to the previous quarter due to steady demand for new smartphone models from major customers and expanded sales in new applications. However, large panels experienced a widened deficit due to falling LCD prices and initial costs related to Quantum Dot (QD) displays.

The Consumer Electronics (CE) division posted sales of 55.83 trillion KRW and operating profit of 3.65 trillion KRW last year. Sales rose 21.3% year-on-year due to untact demand driven by COVID-19, the Bespoke line, and premium product performance, but operating profit increased only slightly due to rising logistics costs and other factors.

Smartphone sales also recovered to the 100 trillion KRW level within a year, marking the highest performance since 2014. The IT & Mobile (IM) division recorded sales and operating profit of 109.25 trillion KRW and 13.63 trillion KRW, respectively, up 9.6% and 19.0% year-on-year. Fourth-quarter sales and operating profit were 28.95 trillion KRW and 2.66 trillion KRW, respectively. The performance improvement was led by foldable phones. Continued consumption by ‘home-stayers’ also boosted sales of tablets, watches, and other wearable products. Approximately 8 million units of the ‘Galaxy Z Fold3’ and ‘Galaxy Z Flip3’ were sold last year.

Samsung Electronics Nears 300 Trillion KRW in Sales... Semiconductor Investment Holds the Key

With global IT demand recovering, Samsung focused 90.5% of its total investment last year on semiconductors, raising expectations for this year’s performance. Samsung Electronics made a record-breaking capital investment of 48.2 trillion KRW last year, including 43.6 trillion KRW in semiconductors and 2.6 trillion KRW in displays. Industry insiders predict Samsung could surpass 300 trillion KRW in sales for the first time this year.

This year in the semiconductor division, while uncertainties such as component supply issues exist in memory, demand is expected to increase due to expanded IT investments by companies and the introduction of new CPUs. Accordingly, Samsung Electronics plans to focus on portfolio optimization through expanded sales of advanced process and high value-added products driven by recovery in server and PC demand. They intend to expand supply of high-performance products and strengthen market leadership by proactively expanding EUV (Extreme Ultraviolet) process application. Memory investments are already underway focusing on Pyeongtaek and Xi’an expansions and process transitions, as well as infrastructure investments in the Pyeongtaek P3 line to meet demand for advanced processes such as EUV-based 15nm DRAM and V6 NAND.

Additionally, System LSI will focus on supplying key components such as SoCs (System on Chips) and CIS (image sensors) for flagship products of major customers, while Foundry plans to expand supply through advanced process production and yield stability improvements. Foundry aims to exceed market average growth by expanding technology leadership through mass production of the 1st generation GAA (Gate-All-Around) process and increasing supply to global customers.

However, for Samsung to solidify its absolute No. 1 position amid intensifying semiconductor competition, proactive additional investment is urgently needed. With the memory semiconductor super boom and ongoing system semiconductor supply shortages, this year presents an environment where aggressive investment can be made more than ever before.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.