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.

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 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.

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.

Shares of Chinese tech heavyweight Tencent Holdings tumbled 5.4% in Hong Kong after the company was added to a list of “Chinese military companies” by the U.S. Department of Defense.

The move follows a near 8% fall in Tencent‘s U.S. depository receipts on Wall Street.

Other Chinese companies added to the list included battery maker CATL, which is part of the supply chain for automakers such as Ford and Tesla.

CATL shares, which fell as much as 5.6%, were last down 3.5% in Shenzhen.

The National Defence Authorization Act of 2024 says that the DoD will be prohibited from procuring goods or services directly from entities on the list in June 2026, and indirectly from June 2027.

In response to the decision, Tencent said in a statement that its inclusion on the list was “clearly a mistake.”

“We are not a military company or supplier. Unlike sanctions or export controls, this listing has no impact on our business,” the company added.

CATL also called the designation “a mistake” in a response, saying it “is not engaged in any military related activities.”

The U.S. has taken aim at Chinese tech companies in its bid to restrict transfer of high-end technologies to China. Last year, it revoked certain licenses to sell chips to China’s Huawei in May and unveiling new sweeping export controls on critical technologies in September, including quantum computing and semiconductor goods.

In 2022, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security said companies must apply for a license if they want to sell certain advanced computing semiconductors or related manufacturing equipment to China.

Dana White, CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and a longtime friend of President-elect Donald Trump, is joining the board of Facebook parent Meta two weeks before the new Trump administration begins.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who had a particularly tense relationship with Trump during the president-elect’s first term in office, said in a Facebook post Monday that White has built the UFC “into one of the most valuable, fastest growing, and most popular sports enterprises in the world.”

“I’ve admired him as an entrepreneur and his ability to build such a beloved brand,” Zuckerberg said in the post.

Zuckerberg has been practicing mixed martial arts in recent years and has attended several UFC events, underscoring his enthusiasm for the combat sport.

In 2023, Zuckerberg tore his ACL during a sparring session as part of training for a competitive MMA fight. That year, Zuckerberg and Tesla CEO Elon Musk traded verbal barbs and indicated that they were willing to fight each other in a match that White would help produce. But Zuckerberg later said the fight was off because Musk wasn’t “serious.”

White appeared with Trump onstage on election night in November after the victory was in hand.

“This is what happens when the machine comes after you,” White said, after being introduced by Trump. “What you’ve seen over the last several years, this is what it looks like. Couldn’t stop him, he keeps going forward, he doesn’t quit, he’s the most resilient hardworking man I’ve ever met in my life.”

Last month, Meta confirmed that the company had donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund. Zuckerberg was also one of several tech executives who visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, following the election.

Musk has had his own connections to UFC in the recent past. In 2021, Musk joined the board of Ari Emanuel’s Endeavor Group, which owns the UFC through TKO Group Holdings. He exited a year later.

Other new members of Meta’s board include John Elkann, the CEO of Italian holding company Exor, and former Microsoft head of corporate strategy Charlie Songhurst, Zuckerberg said.

Elkann is chairman of Exor’s automobile companies Stellantis and Ferrari, while Songhurst has spent the previous year on Meta’s advisory group helping the company with its artificial intelligence and technology strategies, Zuckerberg added.

“We have massive opportunities ahead in AI, wearables, and the future of social media, and our board will help us achieve our vision,” Zuckerberg said.

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