Samsung Unveils $1.1B Silicon Valley Innovation Center

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.

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  • A Bad Day
    I wonder if the $1 bil investment will pay off.

    Maybe it might give Samsung a little push in its market competition with Apple.
    Reply
  • in_the_loop
    I'm not sure if I think this is good or bad.
    On one hand it is good with more competition.
    On the other, Samsung has already announced plans about other OS;es besides android.
    And Samsung has added things to their Android version (like split screen and other stuff) that isn't officially part of android.
    I just forks android more and isn't good as a whole, I think.
    Better leave it to Google to innovate with things that all the android devices could make use of!
    Reply
  • Camikazi
    in_the_loopI'm not sure if I think this is good or bad.On one hand it is good with more competition.On the other, Samsung has already announced plans about other OS;es besides android.And Samsung has added things to their Android version (like split screen and other stuff) that isn't officially part of android. I just forks android more and isn't good as a whole, I think.Better leave it to Google to innovate with things that all the android devices could make use of!Why wait for Google to do something when you can do it yourself and set yourself apart from the competition? In the end Samsung is still using the base Android code just with modifications to their UI and some added apps, the same as all others just what Samsung is adding is stuff no other company has thought of yet.
    Reply
  • downhill911
    Funny to see foreign companies coming to US while US companies try to outsource as much as they can.
    Reply
  • merikafyeah
    Not sure what kind of technology they're looking for, but when I think of world-changing technology, the only things that come to mind are thorium reactors, and really, really good batteries.

    Better save the planet before thinking up better toys IMO.
    Reply
  • Afrospinach
    downhill911Funny to see foreign companies coming to US while US companies try to outsource as much as they can.
    If you consider the situation it is not quite as straight as you put it. Samsung is coming to the US for R&D, probably because of it's large number of qualified personnel relative to other areas, vs US companies doing R&D in the US and outsourcing production. Where are Samsung products made? Where are Apples products designed? They kind of have the reverse position. They are both just taking advantages of resources. Now if Samsung started *making* phones in the US, it would be another story.
    Reply