SAN JOSE, California ― Samsung Electronics is making a big push to expand its presence in Silicon Valley, the heart of the tech world and the backyard of its archrival Apple.

Although it is still rare to find Samsung’s top executives mingling with their younger counterparts, outfitted with a hoodie and sneakers, for spontaneous meetings on the street or at restaurants, the winds of change are clearly blowing.

The Korean tech giant has increasingly acquired tech start-ups, and incorporated their innovative and open corporate culture over the past couple of years.
 
In September, Samsung opened its new Silicon Valley headquarters on a 100,000-square-meter site north of downtown San Jose and some 20 kilometers from Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino.

The $300 million campus, including a 10-story office tower and seven-story parking garage, is the tallest and fanciest facility in the area.

Flexible working hours, hallway conversations, impromptus meetings and convivial lunches all are part of daily lives at the center.

“Silicon Valley is a marketplace where local talent, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and our partners flock together,” said Young Sohn, president and chief strategy officer of Samsung Electronics. “This building is a kind statement as their partner.”

The center houses research and development and sales operations for the company’s chip business. Samsung is the world’s largest memory chip vendor and the second-biggest maker of processors after Intel.

The center used to focus on storage systems in the past but now it seeks diverse software applications such as those on the Internet of Things, health care and cars.

“We are also engaged in mergers and acquisitions of start-ups to fill innovation gaps,” Sohn said. “The Seoul head office allows us substantial autonomy.”

Last year, the center reviewed more than 1,000 start-ups for investment, with 54 of them gaining funding.

“We now join from the initial stage of a start-up to accelerate its technological innovation.”
 
While the center focuses on chip solutions, Global Innovation Center, Samsung’s start-up accelerator also based in Silicon Valley, aims to have more encounters with local talent and entrepreneurs on software services overall.

“We are like a start-up in Samsung,” said David Eun, president and head of the center. “We don’t take a big company approach. We move quickly and always stay hungry.”

Eun was recently promoted to president, a signal that he said shows Samsung’s renewed commitment to software.

The center, under his leadership over the past four years, has poured resources into connecting all devices, not just from Samsung, but also from other manufacturers, via the Internet. Under the vision, the center led several acquisitions such as SmartThings, the smart home platform developer.

Eun said Samsung’s integration of hardware and software would offer more thoughtful and useful experiences for customers.

“We mix the best practices learned in Silicon Valley and Samsung. That seems obvious but many companies don’t execute on this,” he added.

He hinted the company would continue to seek new acquisition opportunities especially on big data analysis and security, the IoT, virtual reality and health care.

“As part of Samsung, a start-up will still have freedom and control, while having great access to decision-makers and collaborations with wide distribution and marketing sources,” he said. “Working with Samsung can be very attractive.”

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)