From dried fish to big fish

The genesis of what was to become Samsung was a humble trading company launched in 1938, dealing in dried fish, groceries and noodles.

It’s grown a bit since then, with divisions and affiliates in electronics, shipbuilding, construction, financial services, theme parks, advertising and health care among others, to the extent that it’s fair to say there are not many pies in South Korea in which the sprawling conglomerate doesn’t have a finger or two.

Its electronics division is the best known to the average consumer, with its memory chips, smartphones and televisions a ubiquitous presence around the world.

The company has announced a jump in profits of more than 10 times for the first quarter, as the price of its memory chips rebounded strongly from a post-pandemic slump on the back of increased demand for anything related to AI.

The chip division is expected to post its first profit in five quarters, as the company has addressed concerns about its competitiveness in the high-bandwidth memory chips used in AI, and this has pushed the share price to a gain of about 30% for the year.

The company has also enjoyed a strong performance in its smartphone division, with rapid sales of its AI-driven Galaxy S24 model enabling it to knock Apple off its perch as the world’s largest handset maker by volume, a position that Samsung had held for 12 years before Apple got its nose in front in January.

AI-chips-with-everything seems to be the major theme driving the market at the moment, and Samsung is well positioned to keep on delivering them.

There are also concerns that Musk himself is harming the brand