Samsung to Invest Record $73 Billion in AI Chip Comeback Bid

Samsung Electronics Co. plans to spend more than 110 trillion won ($73.3 billion) on chip capacity expansion and research this year, devoting a record amount of capital toward an effort to seize the lead in AI semiconductors.

Korea’s largest company is hiking investment 22% in 2026 to try and retake the lead in AI chips from SK Hynix Inc., which has become the dominant provider of high-bandwidth memory to Nvidia Corp. The total outlay surpasses the roughly $50 billion that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is setting aside for capex this year.