More Research Please: Samsung to Spend $4.5 Billion on 5 New R&D Facilities in Korea

Credit: TechBuffalo

Samsung (005930:KS) is spending a huge amount of money on its tech research capabilties in the next few years as the Korean giant battles Apple and other huge rivals. Engadget (from The Korea Times) reports today that the Korean company is set to splurge $4.5 billion to build five research and development centers in the next three years in South Korea. Those R&D facilities will house tens of thousands of new workers.

The five facilities are planned as design centers, and to develop materials, component development, chips, and displays. One of these design research centers will start operating to the south of Seoul in June 2015, while two other research centers in Gyeonggi province will tackle technology development for chips and displays. The latter two facilities will be operational in 2014.

Boxee buy-up

The investment is presumably in addition to Samsung’s regular R&D expenditure. The company has consistently splashed huge sums on research and development in previous years, last year alone hitting a record $10.44 billion in that area.

To bolster its move into people’s sitting rooms, Samsung yesterday acquired set-top box company Boxee for $30 million. The South Korean company has also recorded good numbers in its tablets shipments in India, as well as for its smartphone market share in China. Its newest flagship phone, the Galaxy S4, has just scorched past 20 million shipments in the time since it was launched at the end of April.

(Sources: Engadget and TheNextWeb)