576 billion USD investment in AI chip - South Korean President reveals projects
South Korea launched sweeping chip and artificial intelligence mega-projects on Monday, as President Lee Jae Myung vowed to cement overwhelming leadership in the industry with investments worth more than $576 billion over several years.
The announcement marks Lee's boldest attempt yet to align South Korea's ambitions for artificial intelligence and chips with his promise to narrow regional disparities and revive economies beyond the Seoul metropolitan area.
"We must secure the essential elements of AI faster than any other country," the president said. "Semiconductors, physical AI, and AI data centers are the triple pivot for our giant leap forward."
Samsung and SK Hynix will invest 800 trillion won ($517.87 billion) with suppliers to build two new chip manufacturing sites, each in South Korea's southwestern region, he said. Lee said the country's southwestern city of Gwangju and South Jeolla province will also invest 5-20 trillion won in the projects, with another 81 trillion won expected for a chip packaging cluster in the Chungcheong area near Seoul.
Lee said the southwest will host large chip manufacturing clusters, relying on abundant but underutilized energy. "To meet the rapidly growing demand for semiconductors, we need to quickly complete the manufacturing centers currently under construction," he said.
"At the same time, we need to secure a large production capacity in advance through large-scale new investments, including in the southwestern region. Existing locations centered around Yongin and Pyeongtaek have already reached their limits."
High-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips made by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have become essential in the global race to build advanced artificial intelligence systems. Both companies already operate large semiconductor facilities in and around the Seoul metropolitan area.
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