Hong Kong/Seoul —
Samsung Electronics has become one of the leading beneficiaries of the global artificial intelligence boom. Surging demand for semiconductors has turned South Korea’s largest corporation into a $1 trillion company this year, propelling Seoul’s stock market to rank as the world’s sixth-largest.
But one segment of the country is unhappy with the result: Samsung workers. Tens of thousands of employees have threatened to strike, in an unprecedented walkout that would disrupt a crucial source of memory chips at a time when the AI industry is desperate for more.
Hours before the strike was scheduled to start Thursday, the workers’ unions announced they had reached a tentative deal with management. While the agreement still requires a vote by union members, it marks an early win for Samsung employees, who had been demanding higher pay in light of the company’s record profits.
The deal averted – for now – what would be the largest strike in the company’s history, involving more than 48,000 employees, or nearly 40% of its Korean workforce, over 18 days. Most of the participating employees work in memory chips, critical components in AI hardware produced by tech giants Nvidia and AMD.
