Samsung isn't gaining as much value from its R&D efforts as it did in 2020

At the same time, in H1 2022, the company invested a whopping 20.25 trillion won ($15.2 billion) in its factories and facilities. Interestingly, roughly 80% of that total sum (or 17.54 trillion won / $13.2 billion) got directed toward the semiconductor sector. However, compared to last year, Samsung's facility investments dropped by around 3.4 trillion won, or $2.5 billion. (via BusinessKorea)

Samsung is building a new R&D center in the USA for electric vehicle batteries, as well as a new semiconductor facility in Texas. Furthermore, the company wants to establish a new R&D center to advance NAND flash manufacturing. The company seemingly wants to start manufacturing NAND flash chips based on 236 layers before the end of 2022.

Samsung's investment-to-sale ratio is declining

Although Samsung invested more money into R&D in the first half of 2022, its investment-to-sales ratio has been steadily declining since 2021. Samsung's investment-to-sales ratio used to be in an upward trend for a few years since 2018, rising from 7.4% to 9.3% in 2019 and gaining an additional 9.8% in 2020.

However, Samsung's gains are declining and that ratio has been steadily dropping since 2021, with market watchers citing growing business uncertainty. Although, the present state of the global economy shouldn't be ignored.

Samsung is one of the tech world's biggest R&D spenders. Last year, its aggressive investments allowed the company to secure 4,630 domestic patents and 4,170 patents in the United States. A year ago, the company held over 200,000 patents worldwide across various technologies, including semiconductors, mobile tech, TVs, and System LSI solutions.