Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest maker of memory chips, said Wednesday that macroeconomic uncertainties are expected to be high this year but vowed to embrace a new opportunity in the rise of artificial intelligence (AI).

“Although uncertainties in the macroeconomic environment are expected to be high this year, new opportunities will also be increased through next-generation technological innovations, such as the full-scale AI era,” Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman and CEO Han Jong-hee told an annual meeting of shareholders.

Han told shareholders the electronics giant would continue to make efforts to expand technological innovation in AI and new businesses for sustainable growth.

Samsung Electronics plans to pay 9.8 trillion won (US$7.3 billion) worth of dividends for 2023, Han said.

Kyung Kye-hyun, another CEO of Samsung Electronics, told the shareholder meeting that the company will invest 20 trillion won into its research and development center in South Korea by 2030.

This year, Samsun
g Electronics expected its advanced chip-packaging business to post sales of $100 million, Kyung said.

Kyung said Samsung Electronics will seek to gain a competitive edge in memory chips used for AI computing, called high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, including a 12-layer version named HBM3E.

Last year, Samsung Electronics posted a net profit of 15.48 trillion won, down 72.2 percent from a year earlier, hit by sluggish demand for semiconductor. Sales fell 14.3 percent on-year to 258.93 trillion won last year.

Source: Yonhap News Agency