Strike at Samsung to cost up to $66.7 billion

The DRAM crisis has unsurprisingly led to record profits for memory manufacturers such as Samsung Semiconductor - in the first quarter of 2026 alone, Samsung was able to increase profits in its memory division by 4,800 percent. However, Samsung employees only benefit from this success to a limited extent, as Samsung restricts bonus payments to a maximum of 50 percent of regular annual income.

The union is calling for Samsung to set aside 15 percent of operating profits to be paid out to employees as part of a bonus pool, and for the current maximum limit on bonus payments to be abolished. As we have already reported, the union is planning an 18-day strike from May 21 to June 7, which is expected to be joined by more than 50,000 employees. New reports from Seoul Economic Daily and The Korea Herald illustrate how costly this strike could actually be for Samsung.

Every day of production downtime is expected to result in a loss of up to 3 trillion won (approx. $2 billion). However, production will be interrupted for much longer than three weeks, as Samsung will have to shut down production almost a week in advance and it will take two to three weeks before production can be resumed at full capacity. For this reason, the total cost of this strike is estimated at up to 100 trillion won (approx. $66.7 billion). This strike could also further exacerbate the DRAM crisis, as global DRAM and NAND production will be significantly reduced for several weeks.