The photo provided by Samsung Electronics Co. on June 30, 2022, shows its chip campus in Hwaseong, south of Seoul.
SEOUL, March 7 (Korea Bizwire) — Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest memory chipmaker, saw inventory held by its chipmaking division shot up 76.6 percent last year amid weak demand for chips around the globe, its annual report showed Tuesday.
According to the report, its chipmaking unit’s inventory reached 29.06 trillion won (US$22.3 billion) at the end of last year, up 12.6 trillion won from a year ago as demand for memory chips waned.
Last year, the average selling price of chips dropped 17 percent on-year.
Overall, the tech giant’s inventory assets also rose 21 percent on-year to 52.19 trillion won over the cited period.
The report showed its presence in the DRAM market remained unchanged at 43 percent, while the tech behemoth’s share in the global smartphone market rose 1.8 percentage points to 21.8 percent.
Despite uncertainties, its facility investment rose 10.2 percent to 53.12 trillion won over the cited period, the report showed.
Its R&D spending also increased 10.3 percent to 24.92 trillion won.
As of the end last year, Samsung had hired some 121,400 people, the most ever.
(Yonhap)
