Samsung Electronics Co.’s R&D spending hit the highest mark ever in the first half of the year as it sought to focus on new growth drivers, its financial report showed.
The South Korean tech giant’s R&D spending totalled a record high of 10.1 trillion Won ($8.4 billion) in the first six months of the year, up 12.2 per cent from a year earlier, according to its semi-annual report.
The proportion of the firm’s R&D expenditure to sales also rose to the highest level of 9.3 per cent, Yonhap news agency reported on Friday.
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Samsung’s capital expenditure in semiconductor and display facilities, however, fell sharply to 10.7 trillion Won, the lowest in three years, partly attributable to the weak memory chip market and rising uncertainties from global trade tensions.
The world’s leading memory chip and smartphone maker registered 1,473 patents in South Korea in the first six months of the year, already accounting for over 70 per cent of last year’s patents in total.
The number of Samsung’s patents registered in the global market reached 132,478 as of June. The US accounted for 40 per cent, followed by Europe with 20 per cent and South Korea with 17.8 per cent, it noted.
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Most of the patents were related to memory chips, smartphones, televisions and other processors, considered as the firm’s major profit-making components.