Samsung Defies Chip Downturn With Aggressive Capital Spending

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Samsung Electronics Co. made a surprisingly aggressive decision to keep capital spending at the same level as last year, defying expectations that it go along with rivals in pulling back to alleviate pressure on an already-battered semiconductor industry.

Chipmakers have been struggling with a historic slump in the price of memory, with consumers cutting back on purchases of gadgets months after pandemic-driven production ramp-ups kicked in. Inventory has piled up, forcing double-digit price slides that are erasing profit and forcing Samsung's smaller competitors to slash both output and spending.

Samsung warned that it expected a recovery in chips to begin only in the second half of the year, while smartphone demand would likely contract in 2023. But despite pressure on the world's largest memory chipmaker to slow down spending on new capacity, the company said it would keep on spending on chips, which last year came to 47.9 trillion won ($39 billion). The result will be more pressure on chip pricing than if the Korean giant had pulled back spending on new machinery and factory capacity.

“Markets were getting ahead of themselves and expected a cut,” said An Hyungjin, chief executive officer at Billionfold Asset Management, adding that Samsung's move to stick to its pace in spending will hit other smaller chip rivals.

Shares of Samsung, which supplies displays and semiconductors used in Apple Inc.'s iPhones, shed 3.6% Tuesday in their biggest decline in three months. South Korean rival SK Hynix Inc. ended down 2.4%.

Samsung's plan to keep spending into the downturn will likely widen the company's lead over smaller rivals who are scaling back, but at the cost of profitability.

Samsung's smaller rivals have almost