Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jay-yong makes an inspection tour at Samsung Electronics’ network equipment production line on Jan. 6. (Photo: Samsung Electronics)

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jay-yong said, “Securing future technologies is a matter of survival, and let’s acquire the future in advance of others by grasping the trends of changes.”

Vice Chairman Lee made the remarks while touring Samsung Research, the advanced research and development (R&D) hub of Samsung Electronics, to take stock of mid- and long-term new businesses on Jan. 6.

Vice Chairman Lee’s on-site management tours may be construed as his prioritizing future technology development.

Vice Chairman Lee presided over a CEO meeting of Samsung Electronics, in which the executives from a combination of consumer electronics and IT & mobile communications businesses participated, at Samsung Research.

They reviewed mid- and long-term future strategies, including developing next-generation 6G technologies and AI R&D.

He was also given a briefing on the chronology and progress of next-generation communication technology R&D and the status of AI technology-enabled items.

Among those on hand at the meeting were Samsung Electronics President Kim Hyun-suk in consumer electronics business, President Koh Dong-jin in IT & mobile communications, Choi Yoon-ho, head of the Management Support Office, President Sebastian Seung of Samsung Research, Han Jong-hee, chief of the video display business division, Noh Tae-moon, head of the mobile business division, Chun Kyung-hoon, chief of the network business division, Lee Jae-seung, head of the consumer electronics business division, and President Hwang Sung-woo of Samsung SDS.

Vice Chairman Lee’s presiding over a meeting of leading technology development at Samsung Research was designed to secure future growth engines at the post-COVID-19 pandemic era.

In 2018, Vice Chairman Lee set tasks to nurture core technologies of the 4th Industrial Revolution such as AI, 5G and next-generation mobile telecom, and chips for automotive electrical equipment. Samsung Electronics has stepped on the gas to develop future businesses since then.

In particular, next-generation mobile telecom is one of future businesses, to be nurtured under the stewardship of Vice Chairman Lee with a focus on looking forward 10 years later. In accordance with Vice Chairman Lee’s initiative, Samsung has built groundwork to lead in the 6G telecom business segment.

For instance, Samsung Electronics became the first global telecom tech company to unveil Samsung’s white paper entitled “The Next Hyper-Connected Experience for All.” outlining the company’s vision for the next generation communication system, namely 6G last July.

“Vice Chairman Lee sees 6G mobile telecom as a backbone of the future for Samsung Electronics as infrastructure technology to spearhead convergence with diverse industries such as AI, semiconductors, and smartphones,” a Samsung Electronics official said.

Vice Chairman Lee is an avid player in nurturing the AI business. When he came back to the current management job in 2018, he visited Europe and North America as his first overseas trips and met with global AI experts and scholars to grasp the latest trends and hire top-tier manpower.

He tapped Prof. Daniel Lee of the University of Pennsylvania, an global claimed expert of general robotics, automation and precision, and appointed Prof. Sebastian Seung of Princeton University to be president of Samsung Research last June.

Vice Chairman Lee’s latest tour to Samsung Research was the third consecutive one as many days since he participated in a ceremony to introduce equipment for a foundry production line in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi-do, on Jan. 3 as his first New Year’s on-site inspection.

On Jan. 5, Lee toured the Suwon operation to make an inspection of the network equipment production line and toured the Global Technology Center to preside over a meeting of production technology innovation.

Business and industry sources saw Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee’s latest series of on-site management inspections as his move not only to make preparations for the future, but also to fulfill its corporate social responsibility: An expression of his determination to make Samsung synonymous with catapulting the international standing of Korea through aggressive challenging of future technologies and vowing to put it into practice.

At the meeting at Samsung Research, Vice Chairman Lee said, “We’re going to devote ourselves only to raise corporate social responsibility and contribute to society.”

He called for the participants to harbor a sense of responsibility as a leading company a few ten or a few hundred times more than any other.