Employees of the Device Solutions (DS) division, responsible for Samsung Electronics' semiconductor business, will receive up to 48% of their annual salary as a performance bonus this year. This is due to a significant improvement in performance, particularly in general-purpose DRAM and high-bandwidth memory (HBM).
According to industry sources on December 30, Samsung Electronics announced the expected payout rate for the 2025 Excess Profit Incentive (OPI) to its employees on this day. The expected OPI payout rate for the DS division was set at 43% to 48%, a significant increase from last year's 14%.
The OPI is an annual performance bonus paid when a business unit exceeds its yearly targets, with up to 50% of an individual's annual salary awarded, limited to 20% of the excess profit. The final payout rate will be confirmed in January next year.
The DS division received 50% of annual salary as OPI for 2022, but due to a downturn in the semiconductor market, the rate for 2023 was set at 0%. At that time, the DS division posted an annual loss of 1.488 trillion won. Since then, performance has improved from the first half of last year, and the OPI for 2024 recovered to around 14% for most business units, including memory, System LSI, and foundry.
This year, the increase in general-purpose DRAM prices and the expanded supply of fifth-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM3E) have further boosted the performance bonus payout rate. The payout rates for the System LSI and foundry business units have also reportedly increased slightly. The foundry business unit signed a large-scale supply contract worth 2.28 trillion won with Tesla, and the System LSI business unit is expected to supply next-generation image sensors for Apple's new iPhones.
Securities analysts expect the operating profit of Samsung Electronics' memory business unit to rise from about 635 billion won in the first half of this year to over 2.3 trillion won in the second half. On an annual basis, it is expected to approach 3 trillion won.
Meanwhile, the Samsung Electronics DS division also announced the payout rates for the second-half Target Achievement Incentive (TAI). The memory business unit and the Semiconductor Research Center were set at 100%, while System LSI and foundry were set at 25%. The TAI is paid twice a year and can be awarded up to 100% of the monthly base salary, depending on performance.
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