- The South Korean government, in collaboration with local tech giants Samsung Electronics and SK Group, has officially launched three mega-project development plans covering semiconductor processes, physical artificial intelligence (AI), and AI data centers, establishing a long-term capital expenditure roadmap worth trillions of Korean won.
- Samsung Electronics disclosed that it will invest a total of 245 trillion Korean won in domestic future growth businesses from 2026 to 2040, with 210 trillion Korean won directly injected into the Pyeongtaek and Yongin semiconductor clusters, while planning to build a new advanced high-bandwidth memory (HBM) wafer plant.
- SK Group plans to invest approximately 110 trillion Korean won in semiconductor base capacity and 100 trillion Korean won in AI data centers. Its subsidiary, SK Hynix, has advanced the production schedule of the fourth wafer plant in the Yongin cluster by 12 years to 2033 to meet the explosive demand for large model computing power.
Samsung and SK Establish Historic Capital Expenditure Blueprint
According to regulatory filings and official statements released by the South Korean government and related companies on Monday, the scale and time span of this mega-project set industry records. Samsung Electronics has outlined its medium- and long-term domestic investment framework, with the majority of the 245 trillion Korean won total focused on new wafer plants in the southwestern city of Gwangju, as well as advanced packaging and HBM factories in Cheonan and Onyang. This indicates Samsung's attempt to consolidate its technological moat in both memory and wafer foundry operations through saturated asset investment.
Meanwhile, SK Hynix, as a core supply chain partner of Nvidia, has also presented a balanced plan for chip manufacturing and computing power infrastructure. Chairman Chey Tae-won stated that the average annual investment scale in South Korea over the next decade will exceed 100 trillion Korean won. This high-frequency and intensive capital expenditure rhythm aims to mitigate the downside risks of the semiconductor cycle through economies of scale and firmly grasp the pricing power at the top of the AI industry chain.
Restructuring of Supply Chain Capacity Expansion Timeline
The most significant marginal change in this policy plan is the construction timeline of the fourth wafer plant in the SK Hynix Yongin semiconductor cluster. Originally scheduled for completion in 2045, the latest plan has significantly advanced it to 2033, shortening it by a full 12 years. This decision reflects the current extreme shortage in the AI chip supply chain, especially in advanced processes and high-bandwidth memory. If future market demand remains high, the early release of supply chain nodes will directly alter the market share structure of the global top-tier wafer foundry and memory markets.
Additionally, SK Hynix plans to establish another new chip production base worth 400 trillion Korean won in southwestern South Korea. This base will adopt a phased advancement strategy, with specific implementation progress highly dependent on subsequent board approval procedures and feedback from the global commodity and electronic consumer goods markets. This move provides a buffer for subsequent capacity adjustments in compliance and market regulation.
Policy Guidance for Data Centers and Technology Applications
In terms of infrastructure construction, the South Korean government has adopted a government-enterprise collaboration model. SK Group, GS Group, and Naver will jointly invest approximately 550 trillion Korean won to initially build AI data centers with a total capacity of 8.4 gigawatts, with construction planned to begin in the first half of 2028. The Ministry of Science and ICT expects that if computing power demand continues to maintain compound high growth, the total investment scale of related data center projects could expand to over 1,000 trillion Korean won by around 2035.
In the fields of physical AI and intelligent robotics, the government has established clear macro variables. The government aims for South Korea to become one of the world's top three AI robotics powerhouses by 2030 and to achieve commercialization of humanoid robots in 10 major industries by 2028. Market analysts point out that if the above capital deepening process and technology implementation are realized as scheduled, South Korea's economy will undergo a substantial transformation from its reliance on traditional hardware assembly.
