Samsung, AMD deepen AI memory collaboration amid union strike vote

Samsung Electronics held its 57th regular general shareholders meeting at the Suwon Convention Center in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, on the 18th. Jeon Young-hyun, vice chairman and head of the company’s Device Solutions (DS) division, chaired the session. He said, “We reflected on a lack of competitiveness last year and promised to recover. I would like to say that we have kept that promise. Next year we will develop more differentiated technologies to maintain a sustained competitive edge.”

Shareholders responded with applause, amid a backdrop of positive sentiment: Samsung’s stock price has more than tripled over the past year and earnings have improved. At the meeting, the board approved an additional dividend of 1.3 trillion won.

Also on the same day, AMD CEO Lisa Su visited South Korea for the first time since assuming leadership at the U.S. chipmaker. She visited Samsung Electronics’ Pyeongtaek campus, a key site for memory production, where Samsung and AMD signed a memorandum of understanding to deepen collaboration in next-generation artificial intelligence memory and computing technologies.

Su and Samsung Chairman Lee Jae-yong also attended a dinner together after the signing, underscoring the high-level engagement between the two companies as they explore joint opportunities in AI hardware.

However, the day’s positive mood at the shareholders meeting coincided with a major labor development on the factory floor. Samsung Electronics’ labor union, via its Joint Struggle Headquarters, announced a vote approving a full-scale strike for the first time in two years, with 93.1% of voting participants in favor.

Context for international readers: Samsung Electronics is a leading global producer of semiconductors, smartphones, and consumer electronics, with the Pyeongtaek campus near the Seoul metropolitan area playing a central role in memory manufacturing. AMD is a major U.S. designer of microprocessors and GPUs. The collaboration between these firms signals continued cross-border cooperation in AI hardware and advanced memory technologies, with potential implications for supply chains, AI computing capabilities, and memory pricing. The labor vote highlights ongoing tensions in Korea’s manufacturing sector that could affect production schedules if actions escalate.