Samsung has unveiled a Silicon Valley innovation center, which it hopes will create the "next big thing" in technology that will be aided through a $1 billion investment.
Home to social network leader Facebook, the Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center is headquartered on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California. The innovation hub will have additional offices situated in Israel and Korea. Operations will be managed by Young Sohn, President and Chief Strategy Officer, of device solutions at Samsung Electronics.
"We see tremendous opportunities and transformations over the next five years driven by Big Data centered around mobility, cloud, and the Internet of Things, and Samsung will be a significant part of this revolution," said Sohn. "This is an exciting opportunity for us to engage with entrepreneurs and innovators and empower them to leverage Samsung's technology and global brand presence to bring our collective visions to market."
Funding will derive from the $100 million Samsung Catalyst Fund "together with the $1 billion Samsung Ventures America Fund," which Samsung hopes will "fuel innovative technologies and business models through all stages of business." The initial focus of the center will be geared towards cloud infrastructure, mobile privacy, Internet of Things, human interface and mobile health.
A competition dubbed the SamsungCreate Challenge will be carried out later this year to commence the Catalyst Fund. The program is aimed at encouraging artists, engineers, entrepreneurs and other innovators to utilize Samsung's technology in order to pitch their best ideas. A $10 million payment through seed investments will be given to winners, as well as incubation and support from Samsung's Innovation and Technology fellows and partners with Samsung R&D technologists.
