Samsung Group said Wednesday that it planned to spend $22 billion to pursue new technology in areas like 5G mobile technology and artificial intelligence.
The injection of money will be made over the coming three years and will be part of an overall $161 billion investment plan. That sum is 6% greater than the investment made by the South Korean conglomerate over the past three years, according to Reuters.
The company said a substantial slice of the overall investment pie will be earmarked for South Korea itself, and that overall the investment will create some 40,000 new jobs. The plan, for instance, will boost Samsung’s global roster of advanced AI researchers to 1,000.
The wave of cash will also beef up Samsung’s biopharmaceutical wing, the company said. That news sent shares in contract drugmaker Samsung BioLogics up some 5%.
Samsung’s announcement on Wednesday came after it posted its slowest quarterly growth profit in more than a year at the end of July—a result, in part, of the flailing global smartphone market.
Samsung’s chip business, the world leader, continued to perform well, posting its seventh consecutive record quarterly profit. With its new investment plans, the company, which supplies chip components to Apple, will spend more capital on R&D in chips and displays. Samsung Electronics, the group’s flagship company that oversees the chip business, said it will provide the lion’s share of the investment.