"Steal and Sacrifice Bunt"... Samsung Electronics CTO Compares Semiconductor Industry to Baseball

14th Chairman of the Semiconductor Industry Association Elected... Three-Year Term
"AI Opens Up Opportunities While Shaking Paradigms"
"Korea Overcame Baseball Powerhouses, The Same Goes for Semiconductors"

Song Jae-hyuk, newly elected chairman of the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Samsung Electronics' Device Solutions (DS) division, stated, "To lead the future market, innovative research and development (R&D) that surpasses existing technologies is essential, and we must strengthen the industrial ecosystem to support this."

Song Jae-hyuk, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Samsung Electronics DS (Device Solutions) Division, is delivering his inaugural speech after being elected as the 14th President of the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association at the '2025 Korea Semiconductor Industry Association and Research Consortium Annual General Meeting' held on the morning of the 5th at DoubleTree by Hilton Pangyo, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do. Photo by Jang Hee-jun

On the morning of the 5th, Song Jae-hyuk was elected as the 14th chairman of the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association at the '2025 Korea Semiconductor Industry Association and Research Consortium General Meeting' held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Pangyo in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. In his inaugural speech, he said, "Korean semiconductors face great challenges amid rapidly changing technological innovations and complex global circumstances," and diagnosed, "The advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technology has created new opportunities across the semiconductor industry, but at the same time, the existing paradigms we relied on are being significantly shaken."

Song emphasized that he has been involved in R&D at Samsung Electronics for a long time and reiterated, "The essence of the semiconductor industry is ultimately technological innovation." He especially said, "Now, competition in the semiconductor industry cannot be won by the strength of individual companies alone," and added, "We must move together as one team, like 'Team Korea.'"

From the left, Song Jae-hyuk, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Samsung Electronics DS (Device Solutions) Division, and Kwak No-jeong, President of SK Hynix, are having a conversation on the morning of the 5th at the DoubleTree by Hilton Pangyo in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, during the '2025 Korea Semiconductor Industry Association and Research Consortium Annual General Meeting.' Photo by Jang Hee-jun

Finally, Song introduced an 'interesting metaphor' and brought up the topic of baseball.

He said, "It may be a coincidence, but when looking at the world's semiconductor powerhouses, except for some countries like South Korea, the United States, Japan, Taiwan, and the Netherlands, they are all baseball powerhouses," and recalled, "In the past, I remember seeing our country competing against baseball giants like the United States and Japan, whose baseball industry base was about 100 times larger, by advancing runners, stealing an extra base, and executing sacrifice bunts to overcome traditionally strong nations."

He continued, "The semiconductor industry is the same," and said, "As I mentioned 'Team Korea,' while it is important to compete with semiconductor powerhouses in various fields, if we find their weak points and lead with future technology development and innovation, the Korean semiconductor industry will reach the 'finals' like in baseball."