South Korean President Lee Jae Myung attends a briefing announcing the government’s three mega projects at Yeongbingwan, the Blue House, in Seoul, South Korea, June 29, 2026. Kim Min-Hee/Kyodonews/Pool via Reuters
South Korea rolled out sweeping semiconductor and artificial intelligence (AI) investment projects on Monday, as President Lee Jae Myung pledged to cement the country’s industry leadership with investments worth more than $576 billion over several years.
The announcement marks Lee’s boldest push yet to align South Korea’s AI and semiconductor ambitions with his pledge to narrow regional disparities and revive economies beyond the Seoul metropolitan area.
Lee was joined by the leaders of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, the world’s two largest memory chipmakers, for the televised announcement.
“We must secure the core elements of AI faster than any other country,” the president said. “Semiconductors, physical AI, and AI data centres are the triple axis for our great leap forward.”
Samsung and SK Hynix will invest 800 trillion won ($517.87 billion), along with suppliers, to build two new chip fabrication plants 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 trillion-20 trillion won in the projects, with a further 81 trillion won expected for a chip packaging cluster in the Chungcheong region near Seoul.
Lee said the southwest would host major semiconductor production clusters, drawing on abundant underutilised power.
“To meet the rapidly increasing demand for semiconductors, we need to quickly complete the production hubs that are currently under construction,” he said.
First Published: Jun 29 2026 | 10:49 PM IST
