The union at Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. has announced a postponement of the major strike originally scheduled to begin on the 21st. The union will now conduct an internal vote on a tentative labor-management negotiation agreement, with subsequent actions to be determined based on the voting results. Samsung management and the union had previously engaged in multiple rounds of negotiations concerning 2026 wage issues but failed to completely resolve their differences. The ongoing labor talks at Samsung have recently drawn significant market attention. Due to the potential strike risk, Samsung's share price fell by more than 4% in the South Korean market on Wednesday. Concurrently, the market has been concerned that a strike could further impact the global memory chip supply chain. In recent years, driven by the AI boom, demand for HBM (High Bandwidth Memory), DRAM, and NAND storage has surged, leading to a significant increase in memory chip prices over the past 12 months. Analysts point out that as one of the world's largest memory chip manufacturers, Samsung's labor dispute could not only affect its own production but also impact competitors like SK Hynix and Micron Technology (MU.US). Earlier on Wednesday, the market had still largely expected the strike to proceed as planned. Union leader Choi Seong-ho had stated that company management rejected a proposal from a South Korean government mediation agency that the union had accepted. Within hours, South Korea's Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon called for direct negotiations between the two sides. The market is concerned that if Samsung's labor negotiations ultimately break down, the global technology supply chain could face further risks. In a separate development, a Micron Technology executive expressed optimism that same day regarding the storage demand outlook driven by AI. Speaking at a JPMorgan investment conference, Manish Bhatia, Micron's Global Operations Vice President, stated that the company's current financial outlook has improved further since February of this year. He noted that Micron anticipates generating another large, record free cash flow in the third quarter of fiscal year 2026, while the company's balance sheet is at its strongest level historically. Bhatia emphasized that the structural demand driven by AI still far exceeds the overall supply capacity of the industry. He expects tight supply conditions in the HBM, DRAM, and NAND markets to persist beyond 2026.
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