Samsung replaces chip division chief as it tries to catch Hynix

SAMSUNG Electronics has replaced the head of its semiconductor arm, appointing a memory chip veteran to spearhead efforts to catch up with SK Hynix in the booming AI arena.

Korea’s largest company named Jun YoungHyun the new leader of its most important business line. Jun replaced Kyung Kye Hyun, who will then head up Samsung’s business planning team.

The move comes as Samsung has fallen behind in one of the key growth areas for memory chips, its core business.

SK Hynix has taken the lead in high-bandwidth memory or HBM chips, which have seen explosive growth because they are used for training artificial intelligence models. SK Hynix recently reported its fastest pace of revenue growth since at least 2010, and said overall memory demand is back on a steady growth path. BLOOMBERG