1969
Milestone
Samsung Electronics is established in 1969 and starts producing black-and-white TVs in 1970 (Samsung Electronics company history, samsung.com).
1983
Milestone
Samsung launches its VLSI semiconductor business and breaks ground on its campus in Giheung, Korea, in 1983 (Samsung Semiconductor history, semiconductor.samsung.com).
1983
Launch
Samsung develops 64Kb DRAM in 1983 (Samsung Semiconductor history, semiconductor.samsung.com).
1986
Milestone
Samsung develops 1Mb DRAM in 1986 (Samsung Semiconductor history, semiconductor.samsung.com).
1992
Milestone
Samsung reports that it achieves the world's top DRAM market share in 1992 (Samsung Semiconductor history, semiconductor.samsung.com).
2005
Expansion
Samsung Electronics starts operating S Line, a 300mm line dedicated to system LSI, in Giheung, Korea in 2005, and sets up a foundry business unit separate from its System LSI division in 2017 (Samsung Electronics company history, samsung.com).
Apr 2011
Regulatory
Apple files its complaint against Samsung Electronics Co., Samsung Electronics America and Samsung Telecommunications America in the Northern District of California on April 15, 2011 (docket entry 1, Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., No. 5:11-cv-01846, courtlistener.com).
Aug 2013
Milestone
Samsung announces on August 6, 2013 that it has begun mass producing 3D Vertical NAND, a 128Gb chip that stacks up to 24 cell layers and that Samsung calls the industry's first (Samsung Global Newsroom, August 6, 2013).
2015
Milestone
Samsung starts mass production of 14nm FinFET mobile application processors in 2015, which it lists as the industry's first (Samsung Semiconductor history, semiconductor.samsung.com).
Nov 2021
Expansion
Samsung announces on November 24, 2021 (Korea time) that it will build a semiconductor fab in Taylor, Texas, an estimated $17 billion investment, with groundbreaking in the first half of 2022 and operation targeted for the second half of 2024 (Samsung Newsroom, November 24, 2021).
Jun 2022
Milestone
Samsung announced on June 30, 2022 that it had started initial production of its 3nm process using Gate-All-Around transistors (MBCFET), described as the world's first 3nm process with that architecture; against its 5nm process the first-generation 3nm process cuts power use by up to 45%, raises performance by 23% and shrinks area by 16%, and Samsung said the first application was chips for high-performance, low-power computing, with mobile processors to follow (Samsung Newsroom, June 30, 2022).
Oct 2022
Regulatory
Samsung received a one-year US license waiver in October 2022 to keep importing chip-making equipment for its China NAND fab, after BIS's October 7, 2022 rule added license requirements for equipment bound for China fabs that make NAND memory with 128 layers or more, DRAM at 18 nanometer half-pitch or less, or logic at 16/14 nanometers or less (Federal Register 87 FR 62186, October 13, 2022). Not confirmed in a primary source as of 2026-10-29: the one-year waiver for Samsung; Samsung does not file with the SEC and neither BIS rule describes it, although SK hynix's 2026 SEC prospectus describes a one-year BIS permission for its own China fabs.
Oct 2023
Regulatory
BIS's October 17, 2023 final rule revised the existing Validated End-User authorization for Samsung China Semiconductor Co. Ltd. so that all items subject to the EAR may be shipped to it under a general authorization, except EUV equipment and specially designed parts, components, software and technology necessary for the development or production of NAND memory (Federal Register 88 FR 71478, October 17, 2023). BIS removed Samsung China Semiconductor from the VEU list effective December 31, 2025 (Federal Register 90 FR 42321, September 2, 2025).
Jan 2024
Paused
Samsung's Device Solutions division, which houses memory, System LSI and foundry, posted a 2023 operating loss of KRW 14.88 trillion against a KRW 23.82 trillion profit in 2022; Samsung does not report a foundry-only result, but said foundry earnings fell in Q4, that the business reached its highest annual order backlog in 2023, and that it was focused on improving yield on its second-generation 3nm GAA process and securing a 2nm AI accelerator order (Samsung Q4 and FY2023 results release and earnings presentation, January 31, 2024).
Apr 2024
Regulatory
Commerce and Samsung announced on April 15, 2024 a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms for up to $6.4B in direct CHIPS Act funding, with Samsung expected to invest more than $40B in Central Texas in the coming years: two leading-edge logic fabs, an R&D fab and an advanced packaging facility in Taylor, plus an expansion of its Austin fab (NIST CHIPS for America release, April 15, 2024).
Oct 2024
Paused
Samsung's October 8, 2024 third-quarter guidance put sales at about 79 trillion won and operating profit at about 9.1 trillion won, against 10.44 trillion won of operating profit in the second quarter (Samsung Newsroom, October 8, 2024); its October 31 results reported operating profit of 9.18 trillion won, with the DS Division at 3.86 trillion won on 29.27 trillion won of revenue, and said the decline was largely due to one-off costs including incentive provisions in the DS Division (Samsung Newsroom, October 31, 2024). Samsung's DS Division head, Vice Chairman Jun Young-hyun, issued an unusual public apology for the result on October 8. Not confirmed in a primary source as of 2026-10-29: the apology; neither Samsung Newsroom release contains it.
Dec 2024
Regulatory
Commerce announced on December 20, 2024 a final CHIPS award of up to $4.745B in direct funding to Samsung, down from up to $6.4B in the April preliminary terms; it supports an investment of over $37B in Central Texas (two logic fabs and an R&D fab in Taylor, plus an Austin expansion), against more than $40B and an advanced packaging facility named in April (NIST CHIPS for America releases, April 15 and December 20, 2024).
Dec 2024
Regulatory
BIS's interim final rule effective December 2, 2024 (89 FR 96790) applies to HBM from any maker. It also created License Exception HBM, which authorizes certain exports of HBM stacks with a memory bandwidth density below 3.3 GB/s/mm2 when the shipments go to and from packaging sites owned and operated by US or allied-headquartered companies that track the HBM sent and returned; the rule names no company (Federal Register, 89 FR 96790, December 5, 2024).
Apr 2025
Milestone
Samsung said in its April 30 Q1 results that HBM sales fell on export controls on AI chips and deferred demand ahead of enhanced HBM3E, and that it would ramp the enhanced HBM3E 12H in Q2 to meet initial demand (Samsung Q1 2025 results, April 30, 2025). Not confirmed in a primary source as of 2026-10-25: qualification of HBM3E 12-layer at NVIDIA and a 5-8% allocation gain.
Oct 2025
Milestone
Samsung said in its October 30 Q3 results that HBM3E was in mass production and being sold to all related customers while HBM4 samples were simultaneously shipping to key clients, with HBM4 mass production the Memory Business focus for 2026; the release names no customer (Samsung Q3 2025 results, October 30, 2025). Not confirmed in a primary source as of 2026-10-25: paid HBM4 samples to NVIDIA and a ~28% HBM4 share.
Feb 2026
Milestone
Samsung said on February 12 it began mass production and shipped commercial HBM4, which it calls an industry first: 11.7Gbps per pin (up to 13Gbps), 12-high stacks of 24GB to 36GB and up to 3.3TB/s per stack; the release names no customer (Samsung Newsroom, February 12, 2026).
Samsung Electronics