Samsung Electronics R&D spending hits $25.7b in 2025

Samsung Electronics said it spent a record 37.7 trillion won (US$25.7 billion) on R&D in 2025 to accelerate development of next-generation AI chips.

That was up 7.8% from 35 trillion won (US$23.8 billion) a year earlier, the company said in its annual business report.

The company said the spending aimed to prepare for rising demand for AI semiconductors such as high-bandwidth memory and high-capacity DDR5 chips.

Samsung also reported 52.7 trillion won (US$35.9 billion) in facility investment in 2025, about 5 trillion won (US$3.4 billion) above its earlier plan.

The company said the investment financed new semiconductor facilities including the NRD-K R&D complex at its Giheung campus.

🔗 Source: Yonhap

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Samsung’s record spending follows a slip in operating profit leadership

SK Hynix passed Samsung Electronics in annual operating profit for the first time in 2025, helped by its lead in high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a type of fast memory used in AI chips 1.
That shift tracked with a 57% revenue share in the HBM market in Q3 2025, versus Samsung’s 22%, based on Counterpoint estimates cited by CNBC 1.
Even after Samsung began shipping HBM4 (the latest generation of HBM) chips, analysts expect SK Hynix to cover about 70% of Nvidia’s HBM4 demand, with Samsung supplying the other 30%, according to estimates cited by Chosun Daily and reported by Yahoo Finance 2.
Samsung’s larger investment lines up with a push to win back share in the most lucrative part of the memory market.

The AI memory boom is pushing up costs across hardware

Strong demand has tightened supply, with inventories down to 20 weeks versus a typical 82 weeks, according to the TrendForce-linked post 3.
Memory now takes about 650% of a standard data center server’s bill of materials, up from roughly 458% a year ago 4.
In lower-end smartphones, combined DRAM and NAND make up 402% of component cost, according to one analysis 4.
Separately, reports say Samsung is weighing higher prices for Galaxy S26 models, which may track the same component-cost pressure tied to memory prices 2.