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Samsung readies $648 billion bet, report says, as AI boom reshapes South Korea

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SEOUL, June 26 : Samsung Group will unveil a sweeping decade-long investment plan on Monday, pledging 1,000 trillion won ($648 billion) to anchor South Korea’s next growth cycle, including a possible 300 trillion won push to build chip factories in the country’s southwest, a media report said.

The investment, which would include AI data centers, batteries and displays, will be announced at a meeting with President Lee Jae Myung at the presidential office, the Maeil Business Newspaper said on Friday, without citing sources.

Top executives from heavyweights including Samsung Electronics and its rival SK Hynix will attend the meeting and lay out investment plans targeting regions beyond Seoul and its surrounding hubs, the report said.

The report did not say when the investment would be made.

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At its core, the initiative appears designed to decentralise South Korea’s AI boom into a nationwide engine of growth, easing infrastructure bottlenecks while jumpstarting jobs, innovation hubs and next-generation manufacturing across underserved regions.

The concentration of the chipmakers’ production facilities in areas around Seoul has long drawn political pressure, and has been amplified by Lee’s push for balanced regional development.

Lee had separate meetings with the heads of Samsung and SK this week, media reports said.

The presidential office said it will announce on Monday “three mega-projects” to drive a national leap forward, although it has not yet confirmed the content of the projects.

Samsung and SK Hynix declined to comment.

Samsung Group is South Korea’s biggest conglomerate, with chip giant Samsung Electronics as its crown jewel, but also other affiliates such as battery maker Samsung SDI and IT services company Samsung SDS.

A presidential adviser said this week that it is in talks ​with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix on the next phase of large-scale investments in semiconductor ​production facilities to meet exponential growth in AI-driven demand for chips.

Presidential policy adviser Kim Yong-beom said on Wednesday that SK Hynix and Samsung may need to accelerate projects originally slated for the 2040s into the mid-2030s because AI-driven memory demand was growing faster than expected, leaving no room, power or water in the capital region for subsequent expansion.

REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The regional politics surrounding semiconductor investment became a flashpoint ahead of South Korea’s June 3 local elections, and debate over where the next wave of funding should go has intensified as Lee’s government has made AI a core economic policy priority.

Lee’s approval rating has fallen to 51 per cent, the lowest since his inauguration in June last year, Gallup Korea said on Friday.

Candidates across multiple regions aggressively pitched their areas as the next semiconductor hub, promising to lure giants such as Samsung and SK Hynix. Proposals ranged from a 500 trillion won chip complex in the southwest to expanded clusters in Gyeonggi, Chungcheong and Gangwon, according to local media, underscoring a nationwide contest for strategic tech investment.

($1 = 1,544.3200 won)

Source: Reuters

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