SEOUL, March 18 (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics ( SSNLF )

is set for a tough annual general meeting on

Wednesday with shareholders frustrated by its failure to ride a

boom in artificial intelligence that made it one of the

worst-performing tech stocks last year.

Co-CEO Han Jong-hee and the head of its chip division Jun

Young-hyun will be among executives attending the meeting which

is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. (0000 GMT). Other issues in

focus include strategies to mitigate the impact of U.S. tariffs

and what will drive new growth.

In internal meetings, Samsung has acknowledged it has lost

its technological edge. This is particularly true in

semiconductors where it lags SK Hynix ( HXSCF ) in high

bandwidth memory (HBM) chips that Nvidia ( NVDA ) and others

rely on for AI graphic processing units.

"Our technological edge has been compromised across all our

businesses," according to a transcript of a message from

Chairman Jay Y. Lee given to an internal executive seminar that

was seen by Reuters.

"It's hard to see that efforts are being made to drive big

innovation or tackle new challenges. There are only efforts to

maintain a status quo rather than shaking things up."

Shares in Samsung tumbled by nearly a third last year while

those of SK Hynix ( HXSCF ) climbed 26%. In recent years, Samsung has also

lost market share to TSMC in contract chip

manufacturing and to Apple ( AAPL ) and Chinese rivals in

smartphones.

In January, Samsung warned of sluggish sales of its AI chips

in the current quarter due to U.S. export restrictions to China,

which has become its most important market. That also means it

faces bigger headwinds than rivals from potential U.S. tariffs

on China.

The tech giant launched a share buyback plan worth 10

trillion won ($7.2 billion) in November after its stock plunged

to more than four-year lows. Its shares have gained 7% since

then.

Samsung is South Korea's most valuable company, with its

market capitalisation of $235 billion accounting for 16% of the

total value of the country's main bourse. Nearly 40% of

investors in South Korean stocks own Samsung shares, according

to market data.