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Samsung annual meeting leaves shareholders smiling after chip-led recovery

Published: 18 Mar. 2026, 19:23

Jun Young-hyun, vice chairman, CEO and head of Samsung Electronics’ Device Solutions Division, delivers opening remarks at the company’s 57th annual general meeting at Suwon Convention Center in Gyeonggi on March 18. [KIM SEONG-RYONG]

No shouting, just smiles, praise and promises — Samsung Electronics' annual shareholders meeting was not the company's typical hours-long endurance of reprimand from stakeholders but an unusually amicable session where investors applauded a chip-led recovery and management pledged to widen the turnaround.

“Last year at this meeting, we reflected on our lack of competitiveness and promised shareholders that we would restore the competitiveness of our memory business,” vice chairman and head of the Device Solutions (DS) Division Jun Young-hyun said Wednesday at Samsung Electronics’ 57th annual shareholders meeting. “This year, we kept that promise. Next year, we will further advance differentiated technologies and maintain our technological edge.”

The meeting was held at Suwon Convention Center in Gyeonggi, where Jun addressed about 1,370 shareholders. A year after acknowledging shortcomings in Samsung’s competitiveness in high bandwidth memory (HBM), the company’s top chip executive returned to shareholders with record annual revenue.

Shareholders also appeared more upbeat than they had been a year earlier, when Samsung Electronics shares had been stuck in the 50,000-won ($34) range. After the market opened on Wednesday, the stock moved back above 200,000 won.

“I own 100 shares and my son owns one, and I feel great these days,” said Oh Bong-gyu, aged 52, who came up from Gumi, North Gyeongsang, on Tuesday with his elementary school-age son. The two would have owned over 20 million won worth of stocks on the day of the meeting.

“I will never sell them until my children grow up,” said another shareholder surnamed Kim, aged 39, who was collecting shares for his two children.

“Despite difficult conditions at home and abroad, we achieved record annual revenue of 333.6 trillion won in 2025,” Vice Chairman Jun said. “I will do my utmost to ensure that we never again have to express the kind of regret we did last year over memory competitiveness.”

The benchmark Kospi and Samsung Electronics shares are displayed on an electronic board in the dealing room of Hana Bank in central Seoul on March 18. [NEWS1]

He also laid out plans for the DS Division’s three main semiconductor businesses: to strengthen its market position with high-value-added products such as sixth-generation HBM, or HBM4, in memory; to pursue growth by building on leadership in advanced gate-all-around processes in foundry, or contract chip manufacturing; and to strength existing businesses while laying the groundwork for new businesses to secure future growth engine System LSI.

Jun also referred to recent remarks by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at GTC 2026, Nvidia’s annual AI conference, saying Huang’s emphasis on cooperation with Samsung Foundry showed "Samsung Electronics was positioning itself as a key partner in AI infrastructure."

In the dialogue session with shareholders that followed, questions were raised about how long the semiconductor upcycle could last, as well as concerns about a profit structure concentrated in a limited number of businesses. Although Samsung shares have surged on the back of the chip recovery, some shareholders also pointed to the gap with rivals and sluggishness in set businesses such as smartphones and home appliances.

One shareholder asked when Samsung’s foundry business would be able to catch up with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and deliver meaningful results.

Shareholders are checked before entering Samsung Electronics’ 57th annual general meeting at Suwon Convention Center in Yeongtong District, Suwon, Gyeonggi, on March 18. [YONHAP]

In response, Han Jin-man, head of Foundry Business, explained that Samsung’s cooperation with Tesla on advanced processes was a highly strategic deal. “Foundry requires a long-term approach,” Han said. “If you wait another one to two years, we will show good results.”

Samsung also presented measures to address concerns about overheating in the artificial intelligence market.

“We are pursuing multiyear supply contracts with major clients on three-year and five-year terms and managing risk by identifying changes in demand early and adjusting investment flexibly,” said Jun.

Some shareholders also voiced frustration with the Device eXperience (DX) Division, which includes finished products and has been overshadowed by the semiconductor recovery.

“Samsung’s rise to the 200,000-won level was due entirely to semiconductors,” said one shareholder. “The DX businesses, including mobile and home appliances, also need to perform well for the company to keep growing, and I see them lacking.”

Shareholders look at next-generation high bandwidth memory products, sixth-generation HBM4 and seventh-generation HBM4E, at Samsung Electronics’ 57th annual general meeting at Suwon Convention Center in Yeongtong District, Suwon, Gyeonggi, on March 18. [KIM SEONG-RYONG]

As concerns surfaced over profitability in the TV business amid low-priced Chinese competition, Roh Tae-moon, head of the DX Division, highlighted strong presales for the Galaxy S26 series, saying Samsung will expand the application of AI across all products, including smartphones, TVs, home appliances and automotive electronics.

Shareholder returns also drew strong attention this year. Jun announced Samsung would pay an additional dividend of 1.3 trillion won on top of its regular annual dividend of 9.8 trillion won. The annual dividend per share, including quarterly dividends already paid, will be 1,668 won for common shares and 1,669 won for preferred shares.

All major agenda items were approved as proposed, including the appointment of Kim Yong-kwan as executive director and the appointment of Heo Eun-nyeong, an energy systems engineering professor at Seoul National University, as an audit committee member.

Executive director Song Jai-hyuk was replaced by Kim, keeping the number of executive directors at three. Following the resignation of Yoo Myung-hee, the number of independent directors fell by one to five, reducing the size of the board from nine members to eight.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY YI WOO-LIM [[email protected]]