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Samsung Electronics CEO wants to build an 'AI-driven company'

Samsung Electronics plans to ramp up its on-device AI business, with the aim of exceeding global market growth in the consumer electronics segment this year.

The global consumer electronics market for smartphone, TV and home appliances will grow roughly 3% in 2025, Jong-Hee Han, chief executive officer of Samsung Electronics, told CNBC’s Chery Kang.

Samsung, the world’s largest smartphone and TV maker, expects its mobile devices business to grow by 4%-5% this year, while growth in TV and home appliances unit is also likely to accelerate, said Han, also the head of device eExperience (DX) division of Samsung Electronics.

Samsung Electronics has been ramping up efforts to connect its devices to artificial intelligence, installing AI chips in its fridges, washing machines and robot vacuum cleaners.

It has also been bolstering its AI functions on its premium flagship smartphone models, such as the Galaxy S24 series, which has multiple AI-enabled features including real-time translation of certain foreign language phone calls.

This comes as Chinese brands such as Huawei and Xiaomi have emerged as serious competitors to Samsung by offering high-end smartphones at significantly lower prices.

Competition from Chinese companies is ‘helpful” for Samsung and the consumers, Han said during the interview, noting that the company aims to differentiate its products with more security and convenience, rather than lowering prices.

AI chip delays

Samsung announced a major leadership reshuffle in November, putting Jun Young-hyun as co-CEO and head of the memory chip arm, sharing leadership duties with Han.

The South Korean tech giant, once the dominant force in the memory chip sector, has fallen behind SK Hynix in the race to supply high bandwidth memory chips, or HBM chips, that are a key component for AI leader Nvidia.

Samsung Electronics CEO says competition with China is 'helpful'

Samsung will reportedly issue its fourth-quarter revenue and operating profit forecasts on Wednesday, before releasing quarterly results in late January.

Samsung operating profit for the December quarter is expected to come in at 8.2 trillion won ($5.6 billion), according to Reuters estimates, a notable uptick from 2.8 trillion won it reported a year earlier, but down from 9.18 trillion won in the prior quarter.

In October, Jun, the semiconductor division head, issued a rare apology for the company’s disappointing third-quarter performance.

Last year, shares of the South Korean giant plunged 32%, according to LSEG data, lagging the broader benchmark Kospi’s 9.6% loss.

Samsung expects first-quarter profit to soar 931% as memory chip prices rebound

The share price has “never been this low before,” Han said during the interview, adding that the company has “value-up” plan, aimed at increasing shareholders’ returns. The plan will be announced “one by one when it’s in order,” he said, according to a CNBC translation of his statement in Korean.

Investors are hoping for Samsung to close the gap on HBM and get more serious about its “value-up” scheme, Phillip Wool, head of research at Rayliant Global Advisors said in a note Monday, while adding that the 10-trillion won share buyback plan may help stabilize the stock’s price.

The company unveiled a surprise plan in November to buy back about 10 trillion won worth of shares over the following 12 months.

Peter Lee, an analyst at Citi, cautioned in a note on Dec. 31, that a longer-than-expected delay in getting Nvidia’s approval for its HBM chips and weaker PC sales could continue to pose downside risks. He maintained a “buy” rating on the stock while trimming its target price to 83,000 won from 87,000 won.

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SoftBank Group shares plunge over 9% as Asian tech stocks decline

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SoftBank Group shares plunge over 9% as Asian tech stocks decline

The logo of Japanese company SoftBank Group is seen outside the company’s headquarters in Tokyo on January 22, 2025. 

Kazuhiro Nogi | Afp | Getty Images

Shares of SoftBank Group plunged as much as 9.17% Wednesday, as technology stocks in Asia declined, tracking losses in U.S. peers overnight.

The Japanese tech-focused investment firm saw shares drop for a second consecutive session, following its announcement of a $2 billion investment in Intel. Intel shares rose 6.97% to close at $25.31 Tuesday stateside.

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SoftBank Group shares

Other Japanese tech stocks also declined, with semiconductor giant Advantest falling as much as 6.27%. Meanwhile, shares in Renesas Electronics and Tokyo Electron were last seen trading 2.46% and 0.75% lower, respectively.

Technology companies in South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong, also fell after U.S. tech stocks dropped overnight spurred by declines in artificial intelligence darling Nvidia‘s shares.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is considering the federal government taking equity stakes in semiconductor companies that get funding under the CHIPS Act for building plants in the U.S, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The U.S. CHIPS and Science Act seeks to boost the country’s semiconductor industry, scientific research and innovation.

Shares of Taiwanese chip company TSMC and manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industry — known globally as Foxconn — declined 1.69% and 2.16%, respectively. TSMC manufactures Nvidia’s high-performance graphics processing units that help power large language models, while Foxconn has a strategic partnership with Nvidia to build “AI factories.” 

Meanwhile, South Korean tech stocks mostly fell with shares of chipmaker SK Hynix down 3.33%. Samsung Electronics, however, rose 0.75%.

TSMC, Samsung and SK Hynix are among companies that have received funding under the CHIPS Act.

Over in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Tech index lost 0.87% in early trade.

The worst performing stocks on the index were Kuaishou Technology which declined 4.8%, JD Health International which dropped 3.31% and Horizon Robotics which lost 2.29%.

Losses were also seen tech majors Alibaba Group, down 1.44%, and Xiaomi Corp which lost 1.34%.

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Palantir stock slumps 9%, falling for a fifth straight day from record

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Palantir stock slumps 9%, falling for a fifth straight day from record

CEO of Palantir Technologies Alex Karp attends the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 15, 2025.

Andrew Caballero-reynolds | Afp | Getty Images

Palantir‘s stock slumped more than 9% on Tuesday, falling for a fifth straight day to continue its pullback from all-time highs.

The artificial intelligence software provider’s stock has slid more than 15% over the last five trading sessions, after a stellar earnings report earlier this month propelled shares to all-time highs. The report was Palantir’s first-ever $1 billion revenue quarter.

Tuesday’s dip coincided with a broader market pullback.

Palantir is the most significant gainer to date in the S&P 500 in 2025, up more than 100%.

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Shares have more than doubled as the company benefits from ongoing AI enthusiasm, scooping up government contracts with President Donald Trump pushing to overhaul agencies.

Palantir’s ascent has pushed the company into a list of top 10 U.S. tech firms and 20 most valuable U.S. companies, while also making shares incredibly expensive to own. Its forward price-to-earnings ratio, which tracks future earnings relative to share price, has soared past 245 times.

By comparison, technology giants such as Microsoft and Apple carry a P/E of nearly 30 times and rake in significantly greater quarterly revenues. Meta‘s and Alphabet‘s P/E ratios hover in the 20s.

What to know about Palantir's engineer-led sales strategy

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Databricks says it’s valued at over $100 billion in latest funding round

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Databricks says it's valued at over 0 billion in latest funding round

Ali Ghodsi, CEO of Databricks speaks on CNBC.

CNBC

Databricks has just entered an exclusive club.

The data analytics software vendor said Tuesday that it’s raising a funding round that values the company at over $100 billion. That would make Databricks just the fourth private company to eclipse the $100 billion mark, following SpaceX, ByteDance and OpenAI, according to data from CB Insights.

Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi told CNBC’s Brian Sullivan that the total round will exceed $1 billion. The company was last valued by private investors at $62 billion in a $10 billion financing round late last year.

In June, Databricks executives told investors the company was forecasting $3.7 billion in annualized revenue by July, with 50% year-over-year growth.

Snowflake, one of Databricks’ top rivals, is expected to generate $4.5 billion in revenue for the fiscal year that ends in January, representing annual growth of 25%, according to LSEG. Snowflake currently has a market cap of about $65 billion. Other competitors include cloud providers such as Amazon and Microsoft, which are also Databricks partners.

Ghodsi said he heard from a lot of interested investors following Figma’s IPO late last month. Shares of the design software company more than tripled in their New York Stock Exchange debut, a sign that public investors are seeking out tech offerings after in extended lull in the IPO market.

“My phone was blowing up,” Ghodsi said on Tuesday. “So yes, there’s definitely been a big push from outside.”

Figma shares have since retreated from their initial $115.50 closing price. The stock is trading at about $70, still more than double the $33 IPO price.

Ghodsi said the round will help Databricks invest in products that clients can tap when using artificial intelligence models.

Founded in 2013 and based in San Francisco, Databricks ranked third on CNBC’s 2025 Disruptor 50 list. As of June, the company employed 8,000 people. Existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Insight Partners Thrive Capital and WCM Investment Management are buying shares, a spokesperson said.

WATCH: Databricks CEO on AI: VCs are wondering if agentic AI will actually automate work

Databricks CEO on AI: VCs are wondering if agentic AI will actually automate work

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