Although it took longer than most thought it would, the Korean tech giant Samsung is finally joining the trillion-dollar club. This achievement was made after investors re-evaluated how they see the company – less as a cyclical electronics conglomerate and more as a central supplier to the AI hardware boom, especially memory. On May 5th, Samsung Electronics’ common stock closed 15% higher, briefly pushing its market capitalisation above 1,500 trillion won, or about $1.03 trillion, putting it into a valuation tier long dominated by U.S. tech giants, Saudi Aramco, and TSMC.

Apple Inc. was the main factor that helped Samsung to help ignite the final leg of the rally after Reuters reported that Apple had held exploratory talks with Samsung and Intel about producing key processors in the U.S., and that headline appears to have strengthened the view that Samsung could expand beyond memory and displays into a deeper role in advanced manufacturing for major tech customers. Still, the real foundation was already in place: Samsung had just posted record first-quarter revenue of 133.9 trillion won and record operating profit of 57.2 trillion won, with 53.7 trillion won coming from its chip division as AI-driven demand raised memory prices and tightened supply.

The market landscape now became more complicated and more concentrated toward a few mega-corporations. Apple led global smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2026 with a 21% share, while Samsung held 20%, and Reuters noted that rising memory costs are squeezing phones and displays even as they enrich chipmakers. That tension could reshape Samsung’s business model: over time, it may rely less on volume consumer electronics and more on longer-term, business-to-business revenue streams tied to AI memory, foundry capacity and multi-year supply agreements, while keeping premium Galaxy devices, foldables and displays as strategic showcases rather than the sole engine of growth. If that shift continues, Samsung will look less like a company that sells gadgets and more like one that underwrites the infrastructure behind other companies’ gadgets—including, potentially, Apple’s.

Sources: Reuters
Photos: Unsplash

Written by: Ariff Azraei Bin Mohammed Kamal