[Edaily Reporter Kim So-yeon] Samsung Electronics invested a total of 90 trillion won in capital expenditures (CAPEX) and research and development (R&D) in 2025. This places it at the top among the world’s top 10 semiconductor companies.

SK Hynix also invested 35 trillion won last year, ranking fourth in terms of investment scale. It is assessed that Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, together, invested an astronomical 125 trillion won annually, laying the foundation for the semiconductor supercycle (period of exceptional prosperity).

According to a survey by CEO Score, a corporate data research institute, on the R&D and capital expenditure trends of the world’s top 10 semiconductor companies over the past five years (2021–2025), Samsung Electronics ranked first in investment scale, having invested a total of 89.8935 trillion won last year—including 37.7404 trillion won in R&D and 52.1531 trillion won in capital expenditure.

Score

Compared to Taiwan’s TSMC, which ranked second with 69.4109 trillion won, Samsung Electronics’ investment was 20 trillion won higher. This demonstrates that Samsung Electronics has maintained an overwhelming level of investment even when compared to other global semiconductor companies.

Following Samsung Electronics and TSMC, the companies with the largest investment amounts were: △Intel (40.4499 trillion won) △SK Hynix (35.045 trillion won) △NVIDIA (34.9369 trillion won) △Micron (27.6328 trillion won) △Broadcom (16.4167 trillion won) △Qualcomm (14.4305 trillion won) △AMD(12.9562 trillion won) △Texas Instruments (9.4407 trillion won).

Looking at R&D investment costs last year, Samsung Electronics had the highest at 37.7404 trillion won. Following Samsung Electronics were NVIDIA (26.3347 trillion won), Intel (19.6044 trillion won), Broadcom (15.5350 trillion won), Qualcomm (12.7497 trillion won), AMD (11.5158 trillion won), and TSMC (11.2617 trillion won). SK Hynix ranked eighth with 6.4656 trillion won.

In particular, Samsung Electronics has continued to make astronomical investments of around 80 trillion won annually in capital expenditures and R&D over the past five years. The combined total of Samsung Electronics’ R&D and capital expenditures has been on an upward trend: 72.2307 trillion won in 2021, 78.0459 trillion won in 2022, 88.8739 trillion won in 2023, 88.7398 trillion won in 2024, and 89.8935 trillion won in 2025.

Moreover, Samsung Electronics actually increased its investment scale even in 2023, when operating profit plummeted due to the deterioration of the semiconductor market. In 2023, as the semiconductor downturn took full hold, Samsung Electronics’ investment amounted to 88.8739 trillion won, reaching 13.5 times its operating profit at the time. In essence, the company increased its investment even amid a crisis of declining performance.

However, when examining R&D spending relative to revenue, U.S. chip vendors recorded relatively higher levels. As of last year, Intel had the highest R&D-to-revenue ratio at 26.1%. This was followed by AMD (23.4%), Qualcomm (20.4%), Broadcom (17.2%), and Texas Instruments (11.8%). Samsung Electronics ranked sixth with 11.3%, while SK Hynix ranked ninth with 6.7%.

This survey targeted the top 10 global semiconductor companies by revenue. There are differences in investment structures between companies that directly own production facilities—such as Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, TSMC, and Intel—and fabless-focused companies like NVIDIA, AMD, Qualcomm, and Broadcom.

CEO Score stated, “Given the nature of the semiconductor industry, which requires sustained investment on an astronomical scale amounting to tens of trillions of won annually, the controversy over the distribution of tens of trillions of won in performance bonuses and retained earnings—which has arisen during the recent semiconductor super-boom—will act as a significant burden on these companies.”