South Korea on Monday rolled out three "mega-projects" to anchor its next phase of growth around semiconductors and artificial intelligence, with President Lee Jae Myung pledging to lock in what he called overwhelming industry leadership, according to Reuters.
Reuters puts the headline figure at more than $576 billion in investments over several years, powered by national champions Samsung and SK Hynix. Other outlets framed the totals differently: the BBC and MSN reported a roughly $1 trillion (or nearly $1.2 trillion) chip-and-AI plan, while Firstpost described a decade-long $650 billion push. The differing numbers reflect how various sources bundle the projects.
The centerpiece is a new chip complex. According to the Financial Times' Song Jung-a, the government, Samsung and SK Hynix plan to invest about $590 billion in a new complex that includes four chipmaking plants and a chip packaging cluster, built to meet surging demand for memory chips.
A second project targets AI data centers. The Korea Times' Yi Whan-woo reported these would draw roughly $357.5 billion from SK Group, GS Group and Naver, aiming for 8.4 gigawatts of capacity initially and 18.4 gigawatts by 2035.
The push is fueled by an AI-driven boom in memory. The Decoder notes Samsung and SK Hynix control nearly 80 percent of the memory market, and cites Jefferies projecting memory prices could climb as much as 50 percent per quarter through 2027.
The BBC notes the plan lands as regional rivals Taiwan, China and Japan invest heavily in chip factories and technology. Why it matters: the chips and data centers built here will help decide who controls the computing power behind the global AI race.