Samsung Electronics said on Tuesday it made its largest-ever investment in research and development (R&D) and facility expansion last year. The tech giant spent about 35 trillion won ($24.09 billion) on R&D projects in 2024, up 23.5 per cent from a year earlier. The total facility investment rose by 500 billion won on-year to come to 53.6 trillion won in 2024. Samsung is accelerating efforts to devise new growth strategies as it faces intensifying challenges in the global market and waning global demand for memory chips. Samsung’s fourth-quarter net income rose more than 20 per cent despite the waning global Demand for Memory chips, beating market expectations. Its net income totalled 7.75 trillion won (US$5.4 billion) for the October-December period, up 22.2 percent from 6.34 trillion won a yearEarlier. The company logged annual revenue of 300.87 trillion won, up 16.2 per cent on- year, which marked the second-highest yearly figure after the record high set in 2022. It also logged annual net profit of 34.45 trillion won and its operating income expanded nearly fivefold to 32.72 trillion won.