Samsung drives South Korea’s US$400 billion bid to lead in key tech

SOUTH Korea’s largest companies including Samsung Electronics will join a government plan to pour some US$422 billion into fields including chips and electric vehicles by 2026, the country’s most aggressive effort to date to stake out pivotal technologies.

That would provide an initial kick for Samsung, which now plans to spend about 300 trillion won (S$309.6 billion) over the next two decades to build a new chip cluster on the outskirts of Seoul. The world’s largest memory maker is investing heavily in its foundry capabilities in a bid to challenge far-bigger rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing as the centre of global chip manufacturing.

South Korea’s government on Wednesday (Mar 15) said it would focus support on chips, batteries, robots, electric vehicles, displays and biotechnology. The blueprint includes the creation of hubs housing mega-plants to manufacture semiconductors, as well as design houses and material suppliers to bolster the country’s own supply chain.

Samsung’s investment would be the core part of the push. The company plans to build five memory and foundry fabs in a new chip cluster in Yongin by 2042, where it seeks to attract more than 150 local and foreign chip companies.

Policymakers from Washington to Beijing are throwing billions of dollars into a race to build up domestic manufacturing supply chains after pandemic shortages laid bear the risks of depending on a global supply chain for key technologies. The US has been leading efforts to build chip manufacturing capacity in America, but chipmakers are now weighing the strings attached to government support.

Samsung has been aggressively expanding its most advanced plants at home in Pyeongtaek. It also plans to build a new foundry in Taylor, Texas, by 2024 and has been mulling several possibilities for future factories, including Texas and Europe. BLOOMBERG