South Korea has launched the largest semiconductor investment in history. President Lee Jae Myung unveiled an 800 trillion won plan, approximately $520 billion, to construct four new chip fabrication facilities.
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix will each build two of the fabs in the country's southwest. This initiative is a cornerstone of the government's "three mega-projects" to boost regional economies and secure Korean leadership in AI chip production.
The plan also includes a separate 550 trillion won investment for three AI data centers, with an initial target capacity of 8.4 gigawatts. Major corporations like SK, GS, and Naver are participating.
Beyond fabs and data centers, the strategy directs funding to high-bandwidth memory production, next-generation memory, edge AI chips, advanced defense semiconductors, and robotics. The government aims to produce over 1,000 AI robots annually.
The announcement highlights South Korea's strategic response to explosive AI demand. SK Hynix recently overtook Samsung as the nation's most valuable company, fueled by its dominance in high-bandwidth memory crucial for AI workloads.
For investors, the sheer scale underscores South Korea's ambition to become a global hub for AI compute infrastructure, though projects of this magnitude involve long timelines and significant capital risk.