Samsung was the top investor among global chipmakers with nearly $60 billion

Semiconductors are a major part of Samsung's business. The company makes significant investments to ensure that it remains competitive in this cutthroat industry.

It's not surprising to find out what the company was the top spender among global chipmakers last year. Samsung made nearly $60 billion in semiconductor-related investments in 2026.

Reports from South Korea highlight that Samsung spent around $59.2 billion on semiconductor capital expenditures as well as research and development in 2025. None of the other 10 leading global semiconductor companies made these kinds of investments.

Samsung's investments were notably more than that of TSMC, the world's largest and most profitable contract chipmaker. It's an absolute necessity for Samsung since there's a significant gap to TSMC that it needs to bridge and despite its investments and efforts, it's not quite there yet.

What's interesting to note that Samsung kept up the pace of these investments despite the semiconductor division facing earnings slowdown in 2023.

Companies who operate in this space don't really have the option to wait even in the down years. Constant investments on an enormous scale are required to ensure competitiveness.

Those investments have enabled Samsung to fully capitalize on the AI semiconductor demand right now, and may even enable its foundry division to return to profitability ahead of schedule.