Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (KRX: 005930) shares climbed 7.5% today to a record high of ₩136,900 after co-CEO Jun Young Hyun made upbeat comments to employees that quickly rippled through South Korea’s financial markets. The announcement came at a time when investor sentiment toward semiconductor companies has been highly sensitive to news about artificial intelligence demand and global memory chip supply constraints.
The rise marked Samsung’s largest single-day jump in several months, reflecting renewed optimism that the company may not only recover lost ground from a sluggish 2024 but also reassert its place in the global semiconductor conversation. Hyun’s message was simple yet symbolic: “Samsung is back,” he told staff, referring to rising demand for the firm’s smartphones and chips, both of which are increasingly tied to AI capabilities.
At the center of this excitement is Samsung’s decision to double the number of AI-powered mobile devices it plans to ship, from about 400 million to 800 million in 2026. These devices will feature Galaxy AI technology built on Google’s Gemini platform, combining Samsung’s hardware with Google’s expanding AI ecosystem. For a company historically defined by its hardware dominance, this evolution points to a deeper integration between software intelligence and device design.
To a general business reader, this shift may sound like another corporate move toward AI, but in the semiconductor world, such plans carry major implications. AI-enabled devices demand more advanced memory chips, efficient processors, and higher connectivity standards, all areas where Samsung has vast infrastructure and research depth. By doubling production targets, the company is signaling its intention to capture a large share of the AI-driven consumer hardware market.
Much of Samsung’s strength also depends on the health of the global memory chip market. Over the past year, a shortage of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) and NAND flash chips has reshaped production strategies across the industry. The shortage is partly due to skyrocketing demand from AI data centers and high-performance computing applications, which require massive quantities of memory for model training and data processing.
For Samsung, this trend is a double-edged sword. On one hand, tighter supply means higher prices for its chip business, which contributes heavily to profits. On the other, it can slow smartphone and device manufacturing, creating logistical challenges when trying to ramp up production of new models. Investors weighing both effects appear to see more upside than risk, given today’s market reaction.
Adding momentum to the rally were reports that Samsung had struck supply deals with OpenAI in late 2025, ahead of its upcoming fourth-quarter earnings release. Although the company has not disclosed the scope of these contracts, such agreements reinforce perceptions that AI leaders increasingly rely on Samsung’s manufacturing and memory technologies. The company’s partnership potential with NVIDIA, another key player in AI chips, has also become a subject of speculation following Hyun’s comments.
These narratives have fed investor confidence that Samsung will remain a central player in the next phase of AI infrastructure growth. For those less familiar with the industry, it’s helpful to see Samsung not just as a smartphone maker but as one of the world’s largest semi-integrated technology companies, meaning it designs, produces, and assembles critical components across multiple sectors. That scope allows Samsung to shift manufacturing priorities faster than many competitors during periods of technological change.
The 7.5% jump in share price suggests that the market broadly welcomes this AI-centered vision. For context, Samsung’s stock had been relatively flat through most of 2025 as investors waited for clarity on demand trends and profitability in the memory division. Hyun’s comments, paired with reports of major client relationships, provided that missing spark.
The company’s performance this week will draw even more attention when it reports fourth-quarter earnings. Analysts expect strong revenue growth from component sales linked to AI and cloud infrastructure expansion. If those numbers confirm investors’ current optimism, today’s surge could mark the start of a longer revaluation period for South Korea’s most globally visible manufacturer⁵.
While it’s too early to call Samsung’s rally a full turnaround, today’s stock price underscores how deeply artificial intelligence, and the chips that power it, have become intertwined with investor expectations across the technology sector.
