Samsung Has Promised Nearly 80,000 Employees A $340,000 Annual Bonus
- 21.05.2026, 18:18
The chip maker has decided to share the fabulous profits it has made from the boom in AI development.
South Korean chip maker Samsung Electronics has decided to share with its employees the fabulous profits it earned on the boom associated with the development of artificial intelligence. Management reached a last-minute agreement with the labor union that threatened an 18-day strike at the company, which accounts for 23% of the country's total exports. As a result, employees in the chip divisions could receive an average of about $340,000, Bloomberg calculated, based on the terms of the agreement and operating profit projections. For some, the bonus could even approach half a million dollars.
The biggest payouts are expected for employees in the memory chip division: it is the main contributor to the company's rapid growth in revenue and profits due to the AI boom, and will receive 60% of the money allocated. As a result, the bonus of an employee with a base annual salary of $53,000 is expected to be $416,000 this year, a union official told Reuters. Manufacturers of "regular" chips will receive significantly less. A total of 78,000 people will receive bonuses.
Samsung's operating profit in the first quarter of 2026 reached a record 57.2 trillion won ($38 billion), more than 8 times the figure for the same period last year. The company has agreed to allocate 40 trillion won ($26.6 billion) for employee bonuses this year. JPMorgan Chase estimates that's about 12% of operating profit. The union had demanded 15%.
Analysts forecast a seven-fold increase in operating profit by the end of 2026 to 333 trillion won ($221 billion).
But Samsung employees will receive a relatively small amount of money - about 1.5% of profits; the remaining 10.5% will be allocated in the form of shares.
Samsung's union began demanding that management share profits after its main national competitor, SK Hynix, agreed last year to pay its employees 10.5% of annual operating profit (if certain targets are met). And they can receive the bonus in shares or entirely in cash. The bonuses at SK Hynix could exceed $465,000, according to Reuters calculations.
Korean Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, as well as Taiwan's TSMC, have been among the main beneficiaries of AI development and the related boom in the memory chip market. The market capitalization of the first two has grown about 5 and 9 times respectively over the past year, while the third has grown 3 times. It now stands at nearly $1.2 trillion for Samsung (its shares jumped 8.5% on Thursday after it reached an agreement with the union), about $830 for SK Hynix, and $1.8 trillion for TSMC.