KARACHI: Samsung Group revealed a hefty $356 billion investment plan for the next five years on Tuesday, aiming to make it a market leader in everything from semiconductors to biologics.
The new sum is more than a third higher than the previous plan released last year.
The tech behemoth is South Korea’s largest corporation, with total revenue of a fifth of the country’s gross domestic product.
Samsung Electronics, the company’s flagship division, is the largest smartphone manufacturer in the world.
Samsung stated in a statement that the investment plan will result in “long-term growth in strategic businesses and help strengthen the global industrial ecosystem of crucial technology.”
By 2026, the 80,000 new jobs will be produced “primarily in core businesses including semiconductors and biopharmaceuticals.”
It further stated that the investment would “bring forward the mass production of chips based on the 3-nanometer process,” which is the most recent technology for shrinking transistors and increasing computing capacity.
It will also make significant investments in biopharmaceuticals through its subsidiaries Samsung Biologics and Samsung Bioepis.
The new plan represents a 36 percent increase in investment over the previous plan, which was announced in August and totaled 330 trillion won.
Samsung will invest 360 billion won in South Korea out of the 450 trillion won it wants to spend over the next five years.
On his first Asia trip as US president, President Joe Biden visited Samsung Electronics’ vast Pyeongtaek semiconductor factory on Friday, emphasising the South Korean company’s importance in safeguarding global microchip supply chains.
South Korea and the US must work together to “keep our supply chains resilient, reliable, and secure,” according to Biden, who described semiconductors made in the country as “a wonder of innovation” and vital to the global economy.
Samsung employs over 20,000 employees in the United States, and construction on a new semiconductor plant in Texas is expected to begin in 2024.
