Samsung chair's stock wealth doubles on strong chip demand

Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Jae-yong’s stock holdings more than doubled in value in 2025, reaching 25.8 trillion won (US$17.8 billion) as of January 2, 2026, according to the Korea CXO Institute.

The gain came as Samsung Electronics’ share price surged to 128,500 won (US$88.8), up from 53,400 won (US$36.9) a year earlier, supported by strong demand in the semiconductor sector.

Celltrion CEO Seo Jung-jin held shares worth 13.6 trillion won (US$9.4 billion), up 3.2 trillion won (US$2.2 billion) year-on-year.

Kakao founder Kim Beom-su and HD Hyundai’s largest shareholder Chung Mong-joon each saw their stock assets rise by over 2 trillion won (US$1.4 billion).

In total, the stock value of South Korea’s 45 richest business leaders reached 93.3 trillion won (US$64.5 billion), up 61.3% from a year earlier.

🔗 Source: Yonhap

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Samsung benefits from a structural semiconductor shift

Samsung and SK hynix (a South Korean memory chipmaker) hold about 70% of DRAM and limit expansion to protect margins 1
AI infrastructure is reshaping demand, with 20% of global DRAM capacity projected for 2026 when High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) and Graphics Double Data Rate 7 (GDDR7) use more wafers 2. Annual supply adds 10 to 15% for DRAM, so AI-equivalent needs squeeze PCs and phones 2
Samsung’s Q4 2025 deals ran about 40% higher than the prior quarter, while SK hynix paused shipments to renegotiate 1. Samsung plans about 50% HBM capacity growth in 2026 3 to meet AI accelerator demand from Google’s Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) and Amazon’s Trainium (Amazon’s in-house AI training chip) 4

Plan for Samsung’s dual-site capex in Q1 2026

Samsung’s Pyeongtaek expansion in South Korea covers HBM4 (the next generation of HBM) plus 1c DRAM (a newer DRAM technology node) 5. A $3 billion supplier contract increase and final HBM tool testing point to procurement that could start by January 2026 6 3
The Taylor, Texas chip fabrication plant (fab) was announced at $17 billion and now looks delayed to early 2026 7. Materials vendors should separate HBM upgrades from foundry Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography lines when planning outreach. Samsung targets 250,000 wafer-per-month (a measure of factory throughput) for HBM by late 2026 3, which needs memory line conversions plus P4 expansion (a dedicated production building within Samsung’s Pyeongtaek complex)