Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced it has been recognized by Interbrand, a global brand consultancy, as a “Global Top 5” brand for the fifth year in a row. Interbrand releases its list of “Best Global Brands” each year, and on this year’s list, it was revealed that Samsung’s brand value reached $100.8 billion and grew by 10% year-on-year.

The significant increase of Samsung Electronics’ brand value was driven by growth in the AI industry, particularly its leadership in on-device AI and competitiveness in the semiconductor sector. Since its first top five ranking in 2020, Samsung Electronics has experienced an impressive 62% growth over four years and remains the only Asian business among the global top five brands.

“This year’s substantial brand growth is a direct result of our holistic approach to AI and efforts to put this powerful technology into the hands of Samsung users around the world,” said YH Lee, President and Head of the Global Marketing Office at Samsung Electronics. “Moving forward, we will lean even further into the qualities that our users have come to both love and expect.”

Company Recognized for On-Device AI, enhanced connected experiences and AI Leadership 

According to Interbrand, Samsung Electronics’ evaluation was positively influenced by the following:

• Deployment of AI technologies in key products and leadership in the on-device AI market
• Enhanced connected experiences through AI-enabled platforms and products
• AI leadership based on its competitiveness in the semiconductor sector
• Implementing a consistent brand strategy in the global market
• Ongoing commitment to a more sustainable future.

This year, under the vision of AI for All, Samsung is expanding its portfolio of products infused with AI technologies to enhance customer experiences. With the release of the Galaxy S24 series, Samsung has been leading the mobile AI. It has also launched AI TVs equipped with AI processors and AI upscaling while introducing Bespoke AI appliances that empower user’s daily life.

The company is expanding the SmartThings ecosystem to provide a unified connectivity experience, enabling not just its own products, but also various third-party devices. This integration offers substantial benefits that go beyond more convenience, including energy conservation and family care.

As for brand strategy, the company has been recognized for delivering consistent brand values and build authentic relationships with customers.

Additionally, Samsung focuses on implementing environmentally conscious activities and initiatives by adopting various recycled materials across a wide range of product categories. It has participated in global initiatives and collaborated with industry leaders with focus on goals such as reducing carbon emissions associated with device usage. Samsung Electronics’ sustainability efforts as well as fostering a diverse corporate culture have also received positive evaluations.

Samsung’s Recognized Efforts in Each Business Division

Mobile

• Leading the mobile AI era with Galaxy AI following the release of the Galaxy S24 series
• Making the new Galaxy AI up leveled by the unique Galaxy Z Fold6 and Z Flip6 foldable experience
• Strengthening leadership in the health AI with the release of the Galaxy Watch series

Networks

• Strengthening leadership in virtualized Radio Access Network (vRAN) and Open RAN
• Leading the technical standardization of 6G
• Consistently innovating technologies to support various 5G use cases, including streaming and gaming
• Enhancing partnerships with customer companies and communicating the sustainability aspects of Samsung’s network technology

Visual Display

• Solidifying global leadership in the TV and soundbar markets
• Consistently innovating with products like AI TVs, MICRO LED displays, and the Music Frame
• Innovating the viewing experience with cutting-edge technologies, including AI upscaling and Active Voice Amplifier Pro
• Strengthening security and privacy through Samsung Knox

Digital Appliances

• Maintaining global leadership in categories such as refrigerators and washing machines through consistent product innovation and advanced AI capabilities
• Providing customer-centered value and experience through Bespoke AI appliances
• Enhancing accessibility with Auto Open Door and the upgraded Bixby voice control
• Offering substantial benefits — such as energy efficiency through SmartThings AI Energy Mode — and the expansion of SmartThings connectivity experience worldwide

Interbrand’s Best Global Brands are listed according to the evaluation of each brand value, which is a result of comprehensive analysis of the financial performance of the company, the influence of the brand on customer purchases and brand competitiveness (strategy, empathy, differentiation, customer engagement, consistency, trust, etc.). It is a brand value evaluation with one of the longest histories in the world and is widely recognized for its credibility.

For me, what is most exciting about this milestone is that it highlights how far the semiconductor industry innovations have come today and provides a glimpse into the evolutions that will shape the industry of tomorrow.

Consider that the 5nm process is here in just six months after last October’s unveiling of the first commercial application of EUV in our 7nm process. It’s a rapid progress made possible in large part by running thousands of wafer layers through EUV exposure systems each week. Hands-on experience is the only way to ascend the EUV learning curve, and that body of knowledge is growing daily.

In the learning process, we’re seeing one of the biggest and broadest benefits of EUV – the simplification of design by moving away from increasingly complex multi-patterning lithography strategies. While still early, it’s increasingly clear that the reduced number of mask steps and more straightforward process is nothing short of a revolution for silicon designers. Sighs of relief will be heard as EUV will be seamlessly incorporated into the existing design architectures.

Samsung’s 5nm is the next step in the evolution of EUV. 5nm will be more efficient and feature new innovations including Samsung’s proprietary Smart Diffusion Break (SDB) transistor architecture. One of the most important aspects of 5nm is that it supports 25 percent area reduction and 10 percent performance improvement or 20 percent power reduction than 7nm.

Also, it will be largely design-rule compatible with the existing design of 7nm. Therefore, it is essentially a recharacterization of the technology, not redesign, which will substantially reduce time and the cost of implementation. This combination of technological advance and economic advantage is very much in line with a grand tradition of the semiconductor industry.

This merging of technological advancement and economic benefits is very much in line with the grand tradition in the semiconductor industry as well as technologies including 5G, AI, Connected & Automotive, Robot, etc. – constantly serving as a catalyst for the fourth industrial revolution, while simultaneously driving costs down. That’s why the evolution-moment of 5nm is, in its own unique way, as important as the innovation-moment of 7LPP.

Bringing EUV into production has been a long, challenging process. It required substantial investment of time, money, and human resources. While there were certainly moments of doubt along the way, we had to pursue our vision. The 5nm announcement offers compelling evidence for the value of the investment. As businesses from diverse fields including Foundry, Fabless, the Design House, Packaging, Tests, etc., the semiconductor ecosystem will grow stronger. This is a new chapter for the semiconductor industry, and we are excited to be part of the continued journey in innovation.

Daewon Ha, Logic TD team, Semiconductor R&D Center, Samsung Electronics

Pioneering Automotive Solutions

Samsung’s automotive solution offering has been one of the highlights of this year’s CES, and at the Encore Hotel showcase, key components and technologies for in-vehicle infotainment, telematics and the advanced driving assistance system (ADAS) were on display to invited customers and partners.

Exynos Auto V9 is Samsung’s first dedicated automotive system-on chip for next-generation IVI (In-Vehicle Infotainment) systems. The Exynos Auto V9 can support up to six high resolution displays through powerful processing from eight core CPUs and a tri-cluster GPU, an advanced GPU arranged in three separated sets of GPU cores able to seamlessly support multiple systems simultaneously. The Exynos Auto V9 is also equipped with a neural processing unit (NPU) that processes visual and audio data to accurately recognize face, speech and gesture patterns for intelligent driving experiences. The showcase demo presented diverse concurrent driving assistant and entertainment experiences – for example, the running of navigation in the central information display (CID) at the same time as a movie plays in rear-seat displays.

Exynos Auto T is a telematics solution that empowers safe driving experiences through the integrated use of telecommunications and informatics technologies. The industry’s first cellular modem to support multi-mode from 2G to 5G NR, the Exynos Modem 5100, was also showcased.

ADAS is leading the way in in-drive visual perception capabilities. The demonstration showcased how the ADAS system can recognize and detecting all manner of objects such as cars, pedestrians and traffic signs. Furthermore, the DRVLINE, an open, modular and scalable platform for building ADAS with a faster time to market, was introduced at the showcase.

ISOCELL Auto image sensor is an advanced new solution capable of bringing about a wholly new driving experience thanks to its high performance in detecting objects in a variety of lighting conditions. The ISOCELL Auto image sensor technology provides unrivalled object recognition in a diverse range of driving environments, as the sensor’s high resolution and fast frame rate enables the accurate detection of any moving objects, while its high light sensitivity assists in object recognition even in dark lighting conditions. Furthermore, a wide dynamic range permits the sensor to respond quickly and effectively to sudden changes in brightness, as one might experience when driving in or out of dimly-lit tunnels.

Innovative Pixel Solution for Smart ADB(Adaptive Driving Beam) is the next-generation one-chip LED solution for headlamps that helps prevent glare affecting preceding and oncoming vehicles or pedestrians by automatically controlling the light distribution of a headlamp. Samsung presented this highly-specialized LED solution by demonstrating different driving situations including when a driver starts the engine, needs high or low beam, and faces preceding or oncoming vehicle.

Next-Generation Semiconductor Technologies

This year, five of Samsung’s latest semiconductor products have received recognition from the coveted CES 2019 Best of Innovation Awards – the Samsung 256GB 3DS DDR4 RDIMM, 512GB Universal Flash Storage, 3.84TB NVMe Z-SSD SZ1733, LM302S and the SSM-U Series.

Samsung 256GB 3DS DDR4 RDIMM is the industry’s fastest DDR4 and highest density memory module for next-generation enterprise server platforms, providing the finest high-density, high-performance consumer infrastructure solutions with extremely low-power consumption (15 watts at 1.2V).

Samsung 512GB Universal Flash Storage is the industry’s first 512-gigabyte embedded Universal Flash Storage (eUFS) for automotive A/V systems and next-gen flagship mobile devices, using Samsung’s new 64-layer 512-gigabit V-NAND chips. The 512GB eUFS package transfers a 5GB-equivalent full HD video clip to an SSD in about six seconds, over 8 times faster than a typical microSD card.

Samsung 3.84TB NVMe Z-SSD SZ1733 offers a new level of storage for supercomputing targeted for AI analysis, big data and IoT applications, using Samsung’s new Z-NAND chips which provide 10 times higher cell read performance than 3-bit V-NAND chips.

Samsung LM302S is the most user-oriented next-generation lighting platform to date, designed to improve work efficiency by helping users achieve a better circadian rhythm and healthier sleep. Its human-centric LED solution can improve a person’s concentration level for greater work efficiency by as much as 10% and improve sleep quality by repressing melatonin during the day.

Samsung SSM-U Series is a new type of smart module made up of tiny radar-based sensors with higher detecting sensitivity than conventional sensors. The SSM-U series features invisible and intelligent motion detection-based transmission for greater flexibility and reactivity in smart residential lighting.