Samsung’s investment in R&D, facility expansion hits record high in 2024
Samsung Electronics said on Tuesday it made its largest-ever investment in research and development (R&D) and facility expansion last year.
The tech giant spent about 35 trillion won ($24.09 billion) on R&D projects in 2024, up 23.5 per cent from a year earlier, according to its business report released in the day, reports Yonhap news agency.
The 2024 figure marked the greatest R&D investment Samsung has ever made. The total facility investment rose by 500 billion won on-year to come to 53.6 trillion won in 2024, also an all-time high, the company said.
The rising investment came as Samsung is accelerating efforts to devise new growth strategies as it faces intensifying challenges in the global market and waning global demand for memory chips.
Last year, Samsung's market share in the global TV market fell to 28.3 per cent from 30.1 percent a year earlier, and that in the global smartphone market came to 18.3 percent, down from the previous year's 19.7 per cent.
Its market share in the global DRAM product market shrank to 42.2 per cent in 2024 from 41.5 per cent in 2023.
But the company logged annual revenue of 300.87 trillion won in 2024, up 16.2 per cent from a year earlier, which marked the second-highest yearly figure after the record high set in 2022.
Its annual net profit surged 122.5 per cent on-year to 34.45 trillion won, and its operating income expanded nearly fivefold to 32.72 trillion won from 6.57 trillion won, according to its regulatory filing.
Meanwhile, Samsung’s fourth-quarter net income rose more than 20 per cent from a year earlier despite the waning global demand for memory chips, beating market expectations.
Its net income totalled 7.75 trillion won (US$5.4 billion) for the October-December period, up 22.2 percent from 6.34 trillion won a year earlier. Operating profit soared 129.9 per cent on-year to 6.49 trillion won, while sales rose 11.8 per cent to 75.78 trillion won.
