Samsung Electronics plans to expand its artificial intelligence business in devices, aiming to exceed global market growth in the consumer electronics segment this year.
The global consumer electronics market for smartphones, TVs and home appliances will grow by about 3% in 2025, Jong-Hee Han, CEO of Samsung Electronics, told CNBC's Chery Kang.
Samsung, the world's largest maker of smartphones and TVs, expects its mobile business to grow 4% to 5% this year, while growth in its TV and home appliances division is also likely to accelerate, said Han, also head of eExperience devices (DX) division of Samsung Electronics.
Samsung Electronics is increasing its efforts to achieve this connect your devices to artificial intelligenceby installing AI chips in their refrigerators, washing machines and cleaning robots.
It is also strengthening artificial intelligence features in its premium flagship smartphone models such as the Galaxy S24 series, which has many artificial intelligence-enabled functions including real-time translation some telephone calls in a foreign language.
This applies to Chinese brands such as Huawei and Xiaomi turned out to be serious competitors Samsung, offering top-shelf smartphones at much lower prices.
Competition from Chinese companies is “helpful” for Samsung and consumers, Han said during the interview, noting that the company aims to differentiate its products for greater safety and convenience, rather than lower prices.
AI chip delays
Samsung announced major changes in management positions in Novemberappointing Jun Young-hyun as co-CEO and head of the memory chip division, sharing management responsibilities with Han.
The South Korean tech giant, once a dominant force in the memory chip sector, has fallen behind SK Hynix in the race to deliver high-bandwidth memory chips, or HBM chips, that are a key component of artificial intelligence leader Nvidia.
Samsung will reportedly release its own fourth quarter revenues and operating earnings forecasts on Wednesday, ahead of the release of quarterly results in late January.
Samsung's operating profit for December expected to be 8.2 trillion won ($5.6 billion)This is a significant increase from 2.8 trillion won reported a year earlier, but down from 9.18 trillion won in the previous quarter, according to Reuters estimates.
In October, June, the head of the semiconductor division, issued a rare apology for disappointing the company third quarter results.
Shares of the South Korean giant fell 32% last year, lagging the broader benchmark where the Kospi lost 9.6%, according to LSEG data.
The share price has “never been this low before,” Han said in an interview, adding that the company has a “value enhancement” plan aimed at boosting returns for shareholders. The plan will be announced “one by one when everything is OK,” he said, according to a CNBC translation of his statement into Korean.
Investors hope Samsung will close the HBM loophole and take its “value-enhancement program more seriously,” Phillip Wool, head of research at Rayliant Global Advisors, said in a note on Monday, while adding that the 10 trillion won share repurchase plan could help stabilizing the share price.
Business revealed a surprise plan in November buy back approximately 10 trillion won of shares in the next 12 months.
Citi analyst Peter Lee cautioned in a December 31 note that a longer-than-expected delay in Nvidia's approval for its HBM chips and weaker PC sales could continue to pose downside risks. He maintained a “buy” rating on the company's stock while lowering its price target to 83,000 won from 87,000 won.