{"id":2195,"date":"2026-05-21T04:40:50","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T04:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usglobalnews.com\/2026\/05\/21\/samsung-dodges-global-ai-chip-shock\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T04:40:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T04:40:50","slug":"samsung-dodges-global-ai-chip-shock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/?p=2195","title":{"rendered":"Samsung dodges global AI chip shock"},"content":{"rendered":"

The tech giant that dominates memory-chip production has temporarily averted a potentially devastating union strike<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Samsung Electronics has reached a last-minute tentative wage deal with its largest labor union, temporarily averting an 18-day strike that threatened to hit the global memory-chip supply chain at a time of already tight AI-driven demand.<\/p>\n

The agreement was reached after government-mediated talks just hours before some 48,000 workers were due to walk out, Yonhap reported on Thursday. Union leaders said they would put off the 18-day strike while members vote on the tentative deal from May 22 to 27, meaning the immediate threat has been delayed rather than fully removed.<\/p>\n

The dispute centered on how Samsung\u2019s AI-era windfall should be shared with workers. The union had demanded that 15% of Samsung\u2019s annual operating profit be allocated to employee bonuses and called for the removal of a cap on wage bonuses.<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"RT\"
AI driving global memory chip crisis<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The tentative agreement reportedly includes a revised bonus system and a 10.5% share of operating profits for semiconductor workers.<\/p>\n

The planned strike drew global attention because Samsung is not just South Korea\u2019s biggest company but one of the world\u2019s most important memory-chip suppliers. The company accounts for roughly 36% of the global DRAM market and 28% of the NAND flash market, according to TrendForce figures, making any disruption at its Korean plants a potential shock for AI servers, data centers, smartphones, laptops, and other electronics.<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"Roland
EU push for AI sovereignty could lead to \u2018disaster\u2019 \u2013 Siemens boss<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

With AI demand already straining the memory market, analysts had warned that an 18-day strike could disrupt as much as 4% of global DRAM supply and 3% of NAND flash supply, worsening shortages and pushing prices even higher.<\/p>\n

The stakes were also high for South Korea\u2019s economy. Samsung is a pillar of the country\u2019s export machine and financial markets, with reports estimating that a prolonged walkout could have cost the company up to 1 trillion won, or about $660 million, per day and reduced South Korea\u2019s GDP growth by as much as 0.5 percentage points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The tech giant that dominates memory-chip production has temporarily averted a potentially devastating union strike Samsung Electronics has<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}