South Korea on Monday announced large-scale projects in chips, physical AI and
AI data centers. President Lee said Seoul must accelerate development of AI
inputs and complete chip production capacity quickly, noting current plant
sitting is close to water and infrastructure limits. The government plans
southwest investment of 5–20 tln won, with Gwangju and Jeolla projects
potentially totaling 520 tln won. It expects to build four new fabs in the
southwest at about 800 tln won; Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix will each build
two new plants. Over the next 15 years the government projects at least 30 tln
won of chip-sector investment in next‑generation memory, edge AI and defense,
and forecasts a Chungcheong packaging cluster of about 81 tln won. AI
data‑centre construction is estimated at roughly 550 tln won. Seoul aims to
double DRAM production capacity within five years and expects the global memory
market could expand fourfold over that period. The government said it will seek
to share growth gains with the public.
