Compiled by/Front Intelligence

According to Bloomberg, South Korean tech giant Samsung has recently encountered significant setbacks. Since July of this year, the company's share price has plummeted by 32%, erasing $122 billion in market value, marking the largest decline among global chip manufacturers.

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The report noted that Samsung lags behind its competitor SK Hynix in the AI memory chip market and has failed to narrow the gap with TSMC in contract manufacturing. Earlier this October, Samsung acknowledged delays in its latest generation of High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) chips, while SK Hynix has already started mass production, and American competitor Micron is also accelerating the development of HBM chips.

This series of setbacks has shaken the confidence of overseas investors. Since the end of July, overseas investors have net-sold approximately $10.7 billion worth of Samsung shares. Institutional investors such as Pictet Asset Management and Janus Henderson Investors, which previously held significant stakes in Samsung, have reduced their holdings and shifted their preference towards Samsung's competitors.

It is worth noting that Samsung achieved a 15-fold year-on-year increase in operating profit in the second quarter of this year, with its share price once approaching an all-time high. However, its losses in the AI chip competition have cast a shadow over the company's future prospects. To regain investor confidence, Samsung Electronics unusually apologized to investors for its poor performance this month and pledged reforms to regain competitiveness.