KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Samsung Electronics unveiled plans Friday to buy back 10 trillion won ($7.2 billion) of its shares over the next year, sending its stock soaring in South Korean trading.

• Shares of Samsung, South Korea's largest company by market value, closed up 7.2% Friday on the stock buyback plan.

• Its shares are down more than 30% this year, however, as the memory chip maker and producer of Android phones struggles to catch up with rivals during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.

Samsung Electronics unveiled plans Friday to buy back 10 trillion won ($7.2 billion) of its shares over the next year, sending its stock soaring in South Korean trading.

Shares of Samsung, South Korea's largest company by market value, closed up 7.2% Friday on the stock buyback plan. Its shares are down more than 30% this year, however, as the memory chip maker and producer of Android phones rivaling Apple's (AAPL) iPhone struggles to catch up during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.

Samsung said it would buy stock worth 3 trillion won over the next three months starting Monday. The buyback will comprise of 50.14 million common shares and 6.91 million preferred shares.

Samsung's Chip Business Struggles To Catch Up To SK Hynix, TSMC

SK Hynix, whose stock is up 22% this year, is now the main supplier of high-bandwidth chips to AI darling Nvidia (NVDA), according to Bloomberg, which called the buyback plan a "surprise."

Samsung has also been losing ground to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSM) in manufacturing custom chips for outside customers.