Samsung won't cut investments despite massive profit drop in Q4 2022

During its earnings call, Samsung reaffirmed that it wouldn't reduce its investments despite a slump in demand for semiconductor chips, smartphones, TVs, and other mobile devices. It said. “on the flip side, this is a great opportunity for us to prepare for the future.” The company will continue to make infrastructure investments necessary to meet mid to long-term demand. The company plans to invest in clean rooms for its semiconductor chip manufacturing factories.

The South Korean firm said that its investments in 2023 will be similar to its 2022 numbers. A question on the company's investment plans came in regarding similar steps taken by its chip rivals Micron and SK Hynix to tackle oversupply and a sharp fall in demand for memory chips. Samsung said its total expenditure in chip research and development would rise compared to 2022. The company said it would increase its investments in chip R&D “to enhance our process technology competitiveness and stabilize our process technology early on.”

Samsung reported revenue of KRW 70.46 trillion (around $57.21 billion) for Q4 2022, with an operating profit of KRW 4.31 trillion (around $3.5 billion). Its annual revenue for 2022 was KRW 302.23 trillion (around $245 billion), and its full-year profit was KRW 43.38 trillion (around $35.22 billion).