President Lee Jae Myung and Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, left, take a selfie with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, center, using a Galaxy Z Flip7 produced at Samsung’s Noida plant during a luncheon and Korea-India business dialogue. Joint Press Corps

The Samsung family’s fortune has more than doubled in a year, making it Asia’s third-richest family, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the family’s wealth stood at $45.5 billion as of March, up from $20.1 billion a year earlier. The figure put the Lee family behind only India’s Ambani family, which controls Reliance Industries, and Hong Kong’s Kwok family, behind property developer Sun Hung Kai Properties.

Bloomberg noted that after former Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee died in 2020, the family faced two major challenges: a massive inheritance tax bill and the imprisonment of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong. At the time, some observers questioned whether the family’s grip on the conglomerate could weaken.

Five years later, however, the rise of artificial intelligence has lifted the value of Samsung’s semiconductor business, reinforcing the family’s control and swelling its fortune, according to the report.

It went on to note that Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, who had largely kept out of public view amid legal battles, has recently begun stepping back into the spotlight.

In October last year, Lee drew attention after he was seen sharing fried chicken and beer with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. More recently, he appeared in a selfie taken during President Lee Jae Myung’s visit to India, alongside the president and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Bloomberg said Samsung’s economic influence has also continued to grow. The combined revenue of Samsung Electronics and six other major affiliates amounted to 19.3 percent of South Korea’s gross domestic product last year, up from 15.1 percent a decade earlier.

Shares of Samsung Electronics, which account for roughly a quarter of the Kospi’s total market capitalization, surged 126 percent last year, marking their strongest performance in more than two decades.

Still, Bloomberg noted that the recovery in the Samsung family’s fortune points to a broader disconnect within Korea’s stock market rally.

Source: Korea Times News