Young Sohn
Young Sohn is an American tech executive, entrepreneur, and venture investor focused on deep tech, AI, robotics, and next-gen computing. He is a founding managing partner at Walden Catalyst Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm investing globally in deep tech across AI, semiconductors and robotics. Sohn is also the Chairman of HARMAN International, and serves on the board of Cadence Design Systems and ARM.
He was formerly President and Chief Strategy Officer of Samsung Electronics, where he led the company’s strategic push into automotive, AI, cloud and infrastructure. Sohn was instrumental in Samsung’s $8B acquisition of HARMAN, and launched the Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center.
He has been called "the best-connected chip executive in the semiconductor industry."
Early life and education
Sohn was born in Seoul and grew up in Bowie, Maryland. Sohn holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.S. from MIT Sloan School of Management.Operator, Builder & Scaler
Sohn began his career at Intel, where he launched the PC chipset business and brokered Intel’s first JV with Samsung. He also formed the company's inaugural joint venture with Samsung Electronics. He held the President role at Quantum Corporation, Agilent Semiconductor and Oak Technology, where he led strategic pivots and successful exits. As CEO of Inphi Corporation, Sohn guided the company to a successful IPO in 2010, cementing its role in high-speed data infrastructure.He also served as senior advisor at Silver Lake Partners.
Sohn joined Intel as a product marketing manager and later became its director of new business development. As director of new business development, Sohn oversaw the creation of Intel's PC chipset business. He also formed the company's inaugural joint venture with Samsung Electronics. Sohn was Vice President of Marketing, and later, Co-President of Quantum Corporation. He was also appointed president of the company's Storage Group. Sohn was a chairman and chief executive officer at Oak Technology, a digital media semiconductor company. During his time with the company, he oversaw the acquisition by Zoran Corporation.
Samsung: Scaling Innovation Across Sectors
Joining Samsung Electronics in 2012, Young Sohn became the company’s President and led global corporate strategy. He founded the Samsung [Strategy and Innovation Center], where he launched major initiatives across frontier technologies, includingthe Samsung Catalyst Fund, with investments across cloud and data infrastructure, biotech, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, sensors, networking & 5G.