Samsung Electronics is facing the threat of a major worker walkout, after unions demanded a bigger share of the company’s AI-fuelled semiconductor profits. Two Samsung unions are pushing for a seven per cent pay rise and a bonus scheme worth 15 per cent of each division’s operating profits, with workers
Saskia Koopman
Thursday 07 May 2026 11:33 am
Samsung Electronics is facing the threat of a major worker walkout, after unions demanded a bigger share of the company’s AI-fuelled semiconductor profits.
Two Samsung unions are pushing for a seven per cent pay rise and a bonus scheme worth 15 per cent of each division’s operating profits, with workers threatening an 18-day strike later this month if negotiations collapse.
The standoff comes as the consumer tech giant rides an extraordinary rally, powered by soaring demand for AI memory chips.
The South Korean behemoth this week hit $1 trillion market valuation for the first time, becoming the second East Asian firm after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing to hit the milestone.
Shares jumped more than 14 per cent to a record high on Wednesday as investors piled into AI-linked semiconductor stocks.
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Samsung’s first-quarter net profit surged almost sixfold year on year to £27bn, driven overwhelmingly by its semiconductor arm, which produces memory chips used by Nvidia.
Samsung staff push for AI-era payout
Tens of thousands of Samsung employees rallied outside the company’s vast Pyeongtaek semiconductor complex last month, with unions arguing staff are being left behind while AI demand sends profits soaring.
Read more Kospi breaks 7,000 mark as Samsung becomes trillion-dollar company
A person familiar with negotiations said Samsung had offered workers bonuses equivalent to roughly 13 per cent of operating profit, but unions are demanding the payouts become permanent contractual entitlements rather than one-off rewards.
Woo Ha-kyung, acting chair of the National Samsung Electronics Union, said talks had stalled because management refused to formally lock the profit-sharing arrangement into company rules.
Samsung said it would “continue to make efforts to reach an agreement with the union”.
The dispute is being closely watched by investors because a prolonged strike could hit already strained global chip supply chains at a critical moment for the AI industry.
AI companies have spent the last year scrambling to secure long-term supplies of advanced memory chips, helping drive prices sharply higher.
Professor Kwon Seok-joon of Sungkyunkwan University estimated an 18-day strike could cost Samsung between 10 trillion (£5bn) won and 17 trillion won (£8.5bn) in direct losses alone.
“The bigger damage is indirect,” he warned, as Samsung tries to strengthen its position as a contract chipmaker and win trust as a supplier of next-generation chips to Nvidia.
Read more Kospi nears record 7,000 as Samsung family pay off huge inheritance tax bill
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