The mood at Samsung Electronics' global strategy meeting has flipped in a year. Last year, emergency management to overcome a crisis weighed on the meeting. This year, a companywide AI transformation (AX) has risen to the top agenda item, backed by a return to the No. 1 spot in DRAM and a memory supercycle. The plan is to change how people work, beyond a recovery in results.

Last year's strategy meeting was heavy. Delays in supplying sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM3E) held the company back. It came right after Samsung had ceded the No. 1 spot in the DRAM market to SK Hynix. The meeting focused on overcoming the crisis and emergency management. The key concern was how to regain leadership in memory.

The situation has changed in a year. Samsung has regained the top DRAM position. Results have rebounded as the memory supercycle has gathered pace. Hana Securities forecasts Samsung's 2026 second-quarter revenue at 179 trillion won and operating profit at 92 trillion won. Operating profit would be up 1,850 percent from a year earlier. Price assumptions were raised as average selling prices for DRAM exceeded initial expectations. With server and PC DRAM steady, demand intensity for LPDDR used in AI CPUs, led by Nvidia, is estimated to be strong.

As results rebounded, the meeting's focus also shifted. Issues that had been tied to crisis response expanded this year to companywide innovation. Samsung is pursuing an AI transformation that fully introduces AI into all tasks across its affiliates. It plans to apply AI across all work areas, from research and development to production, marketing and support. Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee (이재용) stressed in this year's New Year message that the company must "change the way we work and the DNA of the organisation from the ground up."

Specific execution also accelerated around the meeting. Samsung will officially introduce external generative AI services such as Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude across its affiliates in June. It plans to apply them across all work, including development and manufacturing as well as software and marketing, and to build security systems at the same time to expand use while controlling risks. It will also run an AI intensive training programme for affiliate CEOs, called the "AX Bootcamp," for the first time. Training for about 50 CEOs will be held for 2 days in June at the Hoam Hall of the Human Resources Development Institute. Training for about 2,300 executives will run through Aug. 12, and training for all employees is planned to be completed within 2026.

This year, riding the supercycle, companywide AI transformation is the top agenda item.

For now, conventional DRAM is the pillar supporting the reversal in mood. Hana Securities analysed that conventional DRAM has driven results since the second half of 2025 through 2026. HBM4's contribution in 2026 has been reduced versus initial expectations due to factors such as delayed shipments to customers. It said that in 2027, the share of HBM4 is expected to reverse, making higher average selling prices possible. It expects the increase in HBM prices in 2027 to widen, as conventional DRAM prices have risen about fourfold versus the second half of 2025, when HBM price negotiations for 2026 were under way.

Hana Securities raised its target price for Samsung Electronics to 480,000 won. It said it lifted its 2027 operating profit forecast by 8 percent from its prior estimate and reflected higher valuations for global semiconductor companies in the memory and foundry businesses. It analysed that it is difficult to find a clear basis for Samsung's weak share price performance versus other memory companies for more than a month, and that an investment strategy using that is needed.

The changed temperature of this year's meeting also showed in remarks by an executive who completed the training. An executive said, "I was honestly surprised that if you learn AI systematically, it is this easy and you can do this much work," adding, "I felt an urgency and sense of crisis that we must immediately change the way we work in the field." A Samsung official said, "'AI transformation' is the starting point of innovation to leap into an 'AI-native company'," adding, "We will pre-empt and lead the opportunities of the AI era."