Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Lee Byung-chul founded Samsung — meaning "three stars" in Korean — in 1938 in Suwon, South Korea as a small trading company selling dried fish, vegetables, and noodles. The company had 40 employees. Korea was under Japanese colonial rule, and Lee had limited capital and limited access to markets. He expanded into sugar refining, wool, and insurance in the 1940s and 1950s, building Samsung into one of Korea's first major conglomerates — known as a chaebol — through relationships with the postwar South Korean government.

Samsung entered the electronics business in 1969, initially making black-and-white televisions under licence from Japanese manufacturers. The South Korean government's industrial policy actively supported chaebol expansion into strategic industries, providing cheap loans and trade protection. Samsung Electronics grew rapidly by producing consumer electronics for export — initially as an OEM manufacturer for foreign brands. The relationship between Samsung and the South Korean state has remained close and occasionally controversial ever since.

Lee Byung-chul announced Samsung would enter the semiconductor business in 1983 — a decision that Korean banking analysts considered reckless. Samsung had no semiconductor expertise, no technology, and would be competing against Japanese and American companies with decades of advantage. Lee invested $100 million of his personal fortune and sent engineers to study American chip manufacturers. Within a decade, Samsung was the world's largest producer of DRAM memory chips. The bet became one of the most successful industrial strategy decisions in economic history.

Samsung had manufactured components for Apple — including processors, displays, and memory — since the original iPhone. Apple was Samsung's largest customer. In 2010, Samsung launched the Galaxy S smartphone running Android, directly competing with the iPhone. Apple sued Samsung for patent infringement in 2011, beginning one of the longest and most expensive patent wars in technology history across dozens of countries. The two companies remained each other's largest competitor and largest supplier simultaneously for years.

Samsung launched the Galaxy Note 7 in August 2016 to enormous acclaim — until reports emerged of batteries overheating and catching fire. Samsung recalled 2.5 million devices, replaced them, then recalled the replacements when they also caught fire. Airlines banned the Note 7 from flights. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued an emergency recall. Samsung permanently discontinued the Note 7 in October 2016, writing off $5.3 billion. The episode was the most damaging product failure in Samsung's history — followed, within months, by the arrest of Samsung's heir Lee Jae-yong on bribery charges.