Samsung

Samsung is a South Korean business group with a range of affiliated companies. The company records on this page centre on Samsung Electronics, the group’s flagship electronics affiliate, which makes smartphones, televisions, appliances and semiconductors. TIME’s list entries and WCRC’s ranking use the Samsung name as a brand-level label, so they are not automatically treated as awards to every Samsung affiliate.

Across markets

Samsung Electronics reported KRW 333.6 trillion in consolidated sales and 259,149 employees in 2025. Its products range from smartphones, TVs and household appliances to memory chips and other semiconductor components. The reach goes beyond the devices consumers buy: chips and displays are also inputs to other manufacturers’ products. Omdia estimated that Samsung’s smartphone shipments grew 7% in 2025, leaving it just behind Apple in global shipments. These scale figures describe Samsung Electronics, not the combined turnover of every Samsung Group affiliate. Its environmental footprint also extends through products after sale. Samsung reported 103.388 million tonnes of Scope 3 emissions in 2025, including 79.582 million tonnes from use of sold products; its Scope 1 and market-based Scope 2 emissions totalled 14.157 million tonnes. Samsung says it revised earlier Scope 3 figures as its calculation methods and category coverage changed, so comparisons with prior years need care. The company’s influence therefore runs through both everyday devices and the component supply chains behind them, with substantial energy and emissions consequences.

The company’s footprint and context are linked to the public sources below.