Samsung announced on Wednesday extensive changes in its management structure, where Seok-woo Nam will be foundry-the business’s first CTO and Jin-man Han becomes division manager for the same. The new roles for Nam and Han are part of an endeavor where a total of two are promoted to division managers (President) and seven senior figures are taking on new roles – while changes beyond the management layer are expected to be announced shortly.

Samsung’s semiconductor visions have had a tough 2024, where the company’s general market-leading memory manufacturing has suffered badly. Main competitor and compatriot SK Hynix has assumed the role of leader in the AI ​​race with HBM-type memory, and remains the sole qualified supplier to Nvidia. Samsung, for its part, is destined to supply its HBM circuits to smaller players like AMD.

Neither are Samsung’s ambitions to be a contract manufacturer, foundryaccording to plan. The few big-name customers have slowly begun to abandon ship and approach TSMC instead. Emblematic of the situation is that this summer Samsung announced its first product on its 3-nanometer process – a manufacturing process that, on paper, was already launched in 2022.

The adversities of memory and foundry-pages notwithstanding, Samsung has repeatedly stated that liquidations or divestments are not current. According to Samsung, the new changes in management should lay the foundation for meeting challenges in “today’s unpredictable business climate and lay the foundation for a new development phase”. In plain text, this means that this is likely to be paraphrased “we will make our AI products work” – a segment where the company previously announced 3D packaging under the name SAINT.

The company’s memory operations also receive new directives. After a few years of cancer, the division will report directly to Samsung’s representative directors. The leading figure here will be Young-hyun Jun, who will take over responsibility for both the memory division and the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology. Jun previously held the position of vice president of Device Solutions, which in turn has overall responsibility for memory and foundry-the divisions.

In an effort to strengthen product quality in semiconductors, Jong-hee Han, vice president and head of the Device Experience business unit, is tasked with leading a new committee. It is worth noting that the reshuffles so far do not include any external recruitments, only internal redeployments. That said, the ball is rolling for restructuring at Samsung – the question is whether the company can get its semiconductor investments right before the conglomerate’s top echelons run out of patience and money.