Complaints by Chinese smartphone companies over increases in Samsung Electronics semiconductor prices have prompted Chinese government officials to submit an opinion to Samsung, the Chinese economic daily 21st Century Business Herald reported on Dec. 22. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), which oversees China's economic policies, has already "invited Samsung for discussions" on the issue after recently taking an interest in the continued rise of semiconductor prices, the newspaper said.

Samsung Electronics is positively considering rolling out a next-generation DRAM using an early 10 nano process as early as the beginning of 2019 by constructing a dedicated production line with EUV exposure equipment in the Hwasung Semiconductor Factory Complex in Gyeonggi-do. Experts say that this strategy aimed to secure profitability while widening micro-process technology gaps with competitors in the booming DRAM market.

The Home Office has signed a GBP210 million (US$279.81 million) contract with Samsung, which will see UK emergency services using the company's 4G smartphones.

It is heard that Samsung Electronics is looking into receiving sensors, which are major parts of fingerprint recognition function, from a Taiwanese manufacturer while it is planning to place fingerprint recognition sensor on the back of Galaxy S9.

Asian stocks retreated from Friday's record after Morgan Stanley downgraded Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, saying their shares had risen too much.

It is heard that the American manufacturer already agreed up to production of test chips and is making preparations accordingly. Chinese manufacturer is a company that develops SoC for mobile devices and is discussing internally about entrusting Samsung rather than Taiwanese companies with production of 7-nano chips.

At this year's ARM TechCon, Samsung Electronics re-clarified its ambitions for 7nm technology in 2018, followed up quickly by a move to 6nm, 5nm, and even 4nm by as early as 2020.

According to industry sources, Samsung Electronics brought in managing director Kye Jong-wook from Globalfoundries last month. He is currently working as the head of the design enablement team of its R&D office, which is a key foundry business unit. Earlier, managing director Song Byeong-moo moved from Intel to Samsung, too.

Solid design and low prices helped China's Transsion Holdings overtake Samsung this year to become the number one smartphone company by sales in Africa, and now it is making inroads into India.

Samsung will describe a 7nm SRAM made with extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in February. Other ISSCC papers will detail memories, sensors and processors spanning everything from fast DRAMs to location trackers embedded in a boot.

The US International Trade Commission (ITC) has agreed to investigate a complaint that Samsung products, including mobile phones, tablets and laptops, have infringed two patents covering semiconductors.

Apple continues to use a mix of Qualcomm and Intel cellular baseband processors in the iPhone X. Teardowns of the handsets also show that the company employed a combination of new and old tricks to pack features into its new flagship smartphone.

According to industry sources on October 19, Samsung Electronics is considering a plan to purchase 10 extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography tools from ASML.

The Samsung Exynos 8895 processor is also going to be made on the 10nm manufacturing process like the Snapdragon 830. It's claimed that both Samsung and Qualcomm are working to produce FoPLP (fan-out panel level package) technology which will eliminate the need for a printed circuit board for the package substrate which will be used in both of their next-generation processors.

Kwon Oh-hyun, Samsung Electronics' CEO, vice chairman, and the head of its hugely successful components business, has announced his resignation. He will step down from the CEO role, as well as his positions on the board and as CEO of Samsung Display, in March 2018.

Samsung's Montreal office will tackle self-driving cars and image recognition.

A court in South Korea has sentenced Samsung's billionaire heir-apparent Lee Jae-yong to five years in prison for corruption.

Samsung Electronics will start construction of Line 18 at its Hwasung plant in November, with total investment estimated at KRW6 trillion (US$5.4 billion). The construction was originally scheduled for 2018.

Samsung Electronics has decided to reduce its reliance on Qualcomm chips for next year's Galaxy S9 in an apparent tit-for-tat against the US chipmaker for making new foundry orders with its Taiwanese rival TSMC only, industry sources said on Aug. 21.

Samsung Electronics plans to triple the market share of its contract chip manufacturing business within the next five years by aggressively adding clients, a senior company executive said, as it targets new growth drivers for the chips business.

Samsung recently bought ultraviolet lithography machines to make 7nm iPhone processors, The Korea Herald said on Tuesday. Sources claimed that one of Samsung's three co-CEOs, Kwon Oh-hyun, was central to winning the deal, and visited Apple's headquarters in June.

In the second half of 2018, it is planning to deploy the 7-nanometer process, using extreme ultra violet (EUV) lithography for the first time. It will be followed by 6-nanometer and 5-nanometer in 2019.

Samsung Electronics is planning to elevate its market share ranking, which is 4th now to second place this year. As Samsung Electronics can specialize its technology competitiveness ahead of its competitors', the company disclosed its aspiration to overtake Taiwan's TSMC, the industry leader in the future.

With the launch of Bixby and reports that Samsung is building its own competitor to Amazon's Echo, the consumer electronics giant has now made an acquisition that could help power its next generation of voice-powered services.

Samsung Electronics is expected to report its best-ever quarterly profit in the second quarter, with soaring memory chip sales pushing it past Intel as the biggest semiconductor maker by revenue for the first time.

Samsung is releasing a new phone using parts from its Galaxy Note 7, which was axed after a battery fault led to some devices catching fire. The new handset will go on sale only in South Korea on 7 July, with a safer, smaller battery, the firm said.

Samsung Electronics is expected to overtake Intel as the world's largest chipmaker in the current quarter, for the first time ever, on the back of strong demand for chips for mobile devices and data servers.

Samsung Electronics Foundry Business Department has set up a plan to go straight to 6-nano process based on 7-nano process. This is its strategy to counterattack Taiwan's TSMC as it took a supply of 7-nano chips from major customers such as Qualcomm and others that are consigned.

Samsung is set to lead the industry with 8nm, 7nm, 6nm, 5nm, 4nm and 18nm FD-SOI in its newest process technology roadmap.

Samsung Electronics is considering selling off its LED business unit in China - Tianjin Samsung LED - to a Hong Kong-based private equity firm, according to The Bell on June 9.

Samsung Electronics has lost Qualcomm's 7-nanometer (nm) chip order to Taiwan-based Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).

According to Samsung's latest job openings, it looks like the South Korean tech giant might be looking to reduce dependency on ARM and proceed to make its own custom mobile GPU.

Tech giant Samsung Electronics said on Monday it is considering adding NAND memory chip production capacity at its manufacturing base in China amid an industry-wide boom that will likely fuel record sales for memory suppliers.

Samsung Electronics is seeking to increase high-performance DRAM chips for AI processors and servers by more than 30-fold and supply the chips first to key clients Intel and Nvidia, multiple industry sources told ET News on May 30.

Samsung Electronics is increasing its effort in semiconductor outsourcing, separating the company's foundry business into a new unit as part of a challenge to market leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.

Samsung Electronics' plan to spin off foundry operations from the system LSI division is expected to increase Samsung's share of global contract chipmaking at the expense of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and smaller rivals.

Samsung is expected to invest KRW24.5 trillion (US$21.95 billion), up more than KRW10 trillion (US$8.96 billion) from the previous year.

It has been found that Samsung Electronics is planning to set up a foundry business unit in its Device Solutions (DS) Division in charge of semiconductor business and so on. This has to do with today's rapid growth of the global foundry market.

Samsung Electronics is planning to invest in a new DRAM lab, according to Korean media reports. The move raises concerns of a capital spending race which could ruin profitability for makers of DRAM, a memory chip commonly used in smartphones.

Samsung Electronics' flourishing components business helped the South Korean technology giant notch up its highest quarterly profit in more than three years, as the company said that it would not adopt a holding company structure after a monthslong internal review.