Jun Young-hyun, Vice Chairman, CEO and head of the DS division of Samsung Electronics, delivers opening remarks as chairman at the 57th Samsung Electronics annual general meeting held at the Suwon Convention Center in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, this past March. Yonhap News
Jun Young-hyun, vice chairman and head of Samsung Electronics’ (005930.KS) Device Solutions (DS) Division, has recently moved to tighten internal discipline among his chip-business executives, telling them that Samsung still has a long way to go, according to industry sources. Even as the company overtook rivals in the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market with its HBM4 chips and posted record earnings, spreading confidence inside the company, Jun singled out complacency as the biggest risk.
At a recent management meeting, Jun repeatedly stressed the message that Samsung “must not grow complacent” while discussing the company’s recovery in HBM competitiveness, industry sources said on the 16th.
He was particularly sharp about an internal mood that treats catching up with SK hynix (000660.KS) as an achievement, reportedly rebuking executives by asking, “Since when did Samsung work toward the goal of beating SK hynix?”
Samsung had ceded leadership to SK hynix in the HBM3 and HBM3E markets, denting its pride as the “memory king” for some time. Through the first half of 2025, SK hynix held a 62% share of global HBM shipments. Samsung trailed at 17%, behind even third-ranked Micron at 21%, deepening market concerns over its memory technology leadership.
The turnaround began after Jun returned to Samsung as head of the Future Business Planning Office in early 2024 and moved to lead the DS Division that May. Jun set “restoring fundamental competitiveness” as the top priority. In developing HBM in particular, he has consistently stressed that Samsung must build its own technological edge, arguing that “you cannot reclaim market leadership by following the technology and products of competitors.”
Jun Young-hyun, Vice Chairman and CEO of Samsung Electronics’ Device Solutions (DS) division, speaks at the “2026 DS Division Win-Win Cooperation Day” held at The Universe in Yongin this past April. Samsung Electronics
As a result, Samsung began mass production of HBM4 and started shipping commercial products to customers in February, becoming the first in the industry to commercialize the chips. Samsung’s HBM4 delivers speeds of up to 13 gigabits per second (Gbps), outpacing rivals. Having chased competitors on HBM3E, Samsung took the lead in commercializing the next generation, laying a foundation for a technological counterattack.
Jun, however, sees the HBM4 achievement as a starting point rather than the completion of the competitiveness recovery, and is again tightening internal discipline. A person familiar with Samsung said, “Jun keeps stressing that doing well on one product, HBM4, does not mean Samsung’s chip business has recovered all of its past competitiveness,” adding, “His view is that HBM4 is only the beginning, and that even as generations advance to HBM5, 6 and 7, the company must build a technology gap that competitors cannot easily close.”
The competitive landscape is indeed challenging, with rivals preparing to strike back. SK hynix said in June that it had supplied major customers with samples of 12-layer HBM4E chips running at up to 16 Gbps. Micron is also collaborating with customers on customized HBM4E and preparing to expand mass production in 2027. It is currently mass-producing 12-layer HBM4 for Nvidia’s Vera Rubin platform while also supplying 16-layer HBM4 samples to customers, joining the next-generation HBM race.
Jun has also reportedly given a sober assessment of Samsung’s record results. In the second quarter, Samsung posted its highest-ever quarterly figures, with revenue of 171.5 trillion won ($123.5 billion) and operating profit of 89.5 trillion won ($64.4 billion). The DS Division alone accounted for 127.5 trillion won in revenue and 89.2 trillion won in operating profit, meaning semiconductors effectively drove the entire profit.
Even so, Jun reportedly told executives, “Looked at coldly, our own capabilities account for only about 30% of the current results.” The remaining 70%, he said, reflects a semiconductor super-cycle driven by global Big Tech companies’ expanded artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure investment, the resulting memory supply shortage, and rising prices.
Assessments from Samsung and the market align with this. In its second-quarter earnings announcement, Samsung said industry-wide prices had risen on stronger demand for server memory tied to expanded AI infrastructure investment, driving its memory business to record earnings. Research firm Counterpoint Research also concluded that surging memory prices played a decisive role in Samsung’s record second-quarter results.
Samsung Electronics’ High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) 4. Photo courtesy of Samsung Electronics
Jun issued a similar warning late last year. As optimism about improving memory market conditions spread at the time, he moved to rein in employees with the message that Samsung was “still far from catching up with competitors.” He emphasized that restoring fundamental technological competitiveness takes precedence over the earnings recovery itself.
Jun’s renewed talk of “crisis” is seen as stemming from his judgment that Samsung’s chip business should not settle for merely overtaking SK hynix. The essence of the competitiveness Samsung once built in the memory market, the reasoning goes, did not lie in a performance edge on a specific product or in a single generation. Ultimately, the point is that Samsung should not be intoxicated by small successes until it restores an overwhelming lead across processes, design, yield and production capacity.