The Family Dynasty Behind Samsung

The heir to South Korea’s largest company and technological powerhouse has achieved succession despite legal problems and imprisonment. He is betting its future on semiconductors.

Lee Jae-yong a.k.a. Jay Y. Lee in 2022. Photo by Korean Culture and Information Service (Jeon Han). Source.

With annual revenues of $233 billion, Samsung Electronics is South Korea's largest company and one of the world’s most valuable technology companies, surpassing both U.S. and Chinese tech companies like Microsoft, Meta, Huawei, and Alibaba in revenue.¹ It is also the flagship company of the Samsung Group, a conglomerate under South Korean law that consists of 61 affiliated businesses, both publicly traded and private.² A pillar of South Korea’s unique economy, Samsung's fifteen largest affiliated businesses together totaled an impressive 20.3% of South Korean GDP in 2021.³ In just a few decades, South Korea rose from poverty to become one of the largest and most technologically advanced economies, reaching the third highest GDP in East Asia after China and Japan. Unlike other developed countries, South Korea’s economy has still grown at a decent pace, making it a notable outlier and a case study in how to avoid stagnation.