SEOUL — Samsung Electronics Co. said it would invest about $116 billion by 2030 to further diversify its semiconductor production beyond memory chips, as the company seeks new growth drivers.
The spending, which entails both research-and-development and capital expenditure, will be directed toward boosting Samsung’s foundry and logic-chip operations two areas the South Korean firm has previously pledged to cultivate. The more advanced chips give the brains to smartphones, computers and self-driving cars that increasingly need more horsepower as they integrate artificial intelligence and faster 5G networks.
Samsung 005930, -0.67% , the world’s largest smartphone and memory-chip maker, said annual spending would average almost $10 billion. The company didn’t specify how much of the total figure represents new investment. Last year, it had pledged to invest more than $22 billion through 2020 in areas like auto-technology components and artificial intelligence.
The extra funding will push Samsung deeper into competition with rival logic-chip firms like Intel Corp. INTC, -0.10% , Qualcomm Inc. QCOM, +0.13% and Nvidia Corp. NVDA, +0.26% , whose offerings are most widely used now. For the foundry business — the outsourced contract manufacturing of chips — the extra investments will arm Samsung against the industry’s dominant player, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. 2330, -0.37%
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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