SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA / MENA Newswire / – Samsung Electronics led global semiconductor companies in combined investment in 2025, spending nearly 90 trillion won, or US$59.2 billion, on capital expenditure and research and development. The total placed the South Korean chipmaker first among the top 10 semiconductor companies by revenue, according to corporate tracker CEO Score. The ranking tracked spending on chip production assets, research programs and technology development across major industry groups.
CEO Score put Samsung’s 2025 investment at 89.8935 trillion won. The amount included 52.1531 trillion won in capital expenditure and 37.7404 trillion won in R&D. The analysis used R&D costs from company income statements. It measured capital expenditure through cash flow entries for tangible and intangible asset purchases. That method allowed comparison across memory makers, foundries, integrated device manufacturers and fabless chip designers.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. ranked second with 69.4 trillion won in combined spending. Intel followed at 40.4499 trillion won, while SK Hynix recorded 35.045 trillion won. NVIDIA placed next at 34.9369 trillion won. Micron Technology posted 27.6328 trillion won, ahead of Broadcom, Qualcomm, AMD and Texas Instruments. The figures put Samsung’s lead over TSMC at about 20.5 trillion won on the combined investment measure.
Investment ranking details
Samsung’s spending came alongside its 2025 financial results. The company reported 333.6 trillion won in annual revenue and 43.6 trillion won in operating profit for 2025. Its fourth-quarter revenue reached 93.8 trillion won, and operating profit reached 20.1 trillion won. Samsung also reported a full-year R&D record of 37.7 trillion won. That figure matched the research component in the CEO Score investment comparison.
The Device Solutions division, which includes Samsung’s semiconductor business, reported fourth-quarter consolidated revenue of 44 trillion won. Its operating profit reached 16.4 trillion won. The company said the memory business set quarterly records for revenue and operating profit. It also cited expanded sales of high-bandwidth memory and other high-value-added products. Stronger market prices also supported the memory result, according to the company’s 2025 earnings statement.
AI chip investment increases
Samsung’s 2026 investment plan allocates more than 110 trillion won to R&D and facilities for AI semiconductors. The amount marked a 21.7 percent increase from 2025. It also represented the first annual investment plan above 100 trillion won. The company’s March regulatory filing listed facility work at Pyeongtaek, Yongin and Taylor, Texas, among current projects tied to semiconductor production and related infrastructure.
Market revenue rankings show a separate measure of industry scale. Gartner reported worldwide semiconductor revenue of US$793 billion in 2025, up 21 percent from a year earlier. NVIDIA ranked first by semiconductor revenue, while Samsung held second place. Gartner put AI processing semiconductor revenue above US$200 billion for the year. The investment measure covered capital spending and R&D expense, while the revenue ranking measured chip sales.
