South Korea announces more than $1T AI, chip investment drive
South Korea announced a large-scale investment drive worth more than one trillion won in the artificial intelligence and semiconductor sectors, aiming to bolster its position in the global chip market and strengthen its AI industry infrastructure.
Background
- South Korea is a global semiconductor powerhouse, home to Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix — the world's two largest memory-chip makers. This $1 trillion+ investment plan (roughly 1,120 trillion won) is a state-backed push to keep Korea competitive in AI chips, especially against Taiwan (TSMC), the US (Nvidia, Intel), and China's expanding chip industry.
- The investment spans both memory chips (HBM — high-bandwidth memory used in Nvidia's AI accelerators) and logic/contract manufacturing (foundry). Korea dominates HBM production but lags in advanced chip design and fabrication, where TSMC leads.
- This follows similar mega-investments by the US (CHIPS Act) and Japan, reflecting a global race driven by AI demand and geopolitical concerns about supply-chain concentration in Taiwan.