They point to deeper structural strains facing the Samsung group at the start of the artificial intelligence era. While Samsung is viewed externally as a top-tier global company, internal interests and organizational cohesion are increasingly pulling apart.
Samsung Electronics posted a record first-quarter operating profit of more than 57 trillion won. But the headline figure largely reflects a structure propped up by semiconductors. The Device Solutions, or DS, division accounted for most companywide profit, buoyed by a boom in high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, for AI data centers.
By contrast, the Device Experience, or DX, division — responsible for smartphones, televisions and home appliances — has seen profitability deteriorate sharply, with talk of possible annual losses. Within the same company, one side is in a boom while the other worries about restructuring.
That gap is now spilling into internal conflict. The semiconductor-focused union has demanded the removal of caps on performance bonuses and compensation tied to operating profit, and has warned of a general strike. Among employees outside semiconductors, complaints have surfaced publicly that “it’s the same Samsung, but some are demanding a bonus feast while others worry about survival.” Moves to leave the union have also spread.
The situation at Samsung Biologics is also emblematic. The company, which has the world’s largest production capacity, has entered its first strike since its founding. Biopharmaceutical manufacturing is even more sensitive than semiconductors. Because it is a continuous process involving living cells, any halt can quickly lead to disposal and losses. Global drugmakers place high value on stable supply. Samsung Biologics now faces the risk that internal trust fractures could undermine global competitiveness despite its scale.
The legitimacy of workers’ demands for fair compensation is not in question. The AI semiconductor boom would not be possible without engineers and production staff on the ground. Skilled labor in biomanufacturing is also central to global competitiveness. In a market economy, performance is expected to be rewarded.
But the core issue now emerging at Samsung is less about “how much more” and more about how to sustain Samsung as a shared enterprise.
Samsung Electronics grew on an integrated model linking semiconductors, smartphones, televisions, appliances, components and platforms. When memory chips slumped, device businesses helped cushion the company; now semiconductors are supporting the whole. The structure depended on enduring each other’s cycles. As interests become more fragmented, a “our share is ours” mindset is starting to erode cohesion.
This is not only a labor-management issue. It reflects a broader shift manufacturers face in the AI era. A lead in AI cannot be sustained by one division alone. Semiconductors and data, platforms and finished products, and biomanufacturing and supply chains must be connected. Integration, more than technology, is the harder task.
Global IT companies are reshaping organizations as they pivot to AI. Microsoft has effectively merged its cloud and AI organizations. Nvidia has moved beyond being a chipmaker toward building an AI ecosystem. Amazon is also focusing on integrating logistics, cloud and AI into a single platform structure. The message is that AI-era competitiveness depends less on individual division results than on how tightly the organization is connected.
The challenge now falls to Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong. What is needed is not only bigger investment or slogans about technological dominance, but a management structure and organizational philosophy suited to the AI era.
Semiconductors making money does not mean Samsung can become a semiconductor-only company. And having the world’s largest bioproduction capacity does not automatically secure internal trust. Large organizations often fail more from internal fractures than external competition; historically, empires have tended to split from within.
Samsung is at a critical crossroads. If it cannot integrate internal divisions despite world-class manufacturing capabilities in the AI era, today’s boom could become the seed of a future crisis.
A new era requires a new organization. The logic of industrial-era manufacturing alone cannot run a hyperconnected AI company. Profit-sharing must become more precise, solidarity across divisions more transparent, and labor-management relations must evolve from confrontation toward jointly designing long-term competitiveness.
Crises do not come only from outside. Samsung’s real test is beginning inside the company.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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