New Samsung Layoffs in the U.S. Show Smartphone Arm's Struggles, Even as It Profits Massively From AI - Gizmodo

Ah, Samsung. The company that's simultaneously raking in AI chip money like a digital Scrooge McDuck and firing 839 US employees from its consumer tech arm. Because nothing says 'we believe in innovation' quite like sacking the very people who make your phones and displays. The Gizmodo piece makes it sound almost quaint: 'roughly 839 employees losing their jobs' — roughly, as if they misplaced a few dozen under the sofa cushions. But the maths is simple: when your memory chips are printing money, who needs those pesky smartphone engineers?

Samsung's semiconductor division is reportedly 'profiting massively' from AI demand, yet the consumer electronics side is apparently bleeding jobs faster than a budget OLED panel. The company's stock probably didn't flinch either, because the real product being optimised here is shareholder value, not phones. And let's not pretend this is a one-off — Samsung has been shaving headcounts like a nervous barber for months. The 'smartphone arm's struggles' tagline is almost too polite. Nothing says forward-looking tech giant quite like cutting the people who make your flagship products while riding an AI wave that those same laid-off workers will never benefit from.

Meanwhile, the AI revolution that Samsung's chips are enabling is busy automating everything from call-centre scripts to press-release writing. How fitting that the very company powering that revolution is also perfecting the art of human disposability. If you're one of the 839, take solace: you're not being replaced by a robot — you're being replaced by the profits from the chips that power the robots. Progress, everyone!