Samsung, SK to invest 2,000 trillion won in South Korea’s new ‘three mega projects’ over 10 years

[SEOUL] South Korea’s Samsung Group and SK Group are poised to announce as much as 2,000 trillion won (S$1.7 trillion) of investments over the next decade as part of President Lee Jae-myung’s flagship industrial strategy, the Korea Economic Daily reported.

The two groups are expected to unveil the package when their leaders present the plans at the presidential office on Monday (Jun 29) , the newspaper said, without giving details of where it obtained the information.

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are each expected to build four to five semiconductor fabs in the Gwangju area, in the country’s southwest, the newspaper said. Samsung is also expected to build chip packaging plants in South Chungcheong province while SK Hynix will expand NAND plants in North Chungcheong province, the newspaper added.

Lee will introduce the “Three Mega Projects for the Great Leap Forward” initiative at a 2 pm (1pm Singapore time) event, South Korea’s presidential office said on Sunday. Presidential Spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said officials from the industry, science, climate and land ministries will outline the government’s policy measures. Then Samsung Electronics executive chairman Lee Jae-yong and SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won will announce their companies’ investment plans at the event.

For Samsung and SK Group, the major investments would reflect mounting demand for AI chips, memory and data centre infrastructure, while aligning with President Lee’s push to preserve South Korea’s technological edge against rivals including the US, China and Taiwan.

The latest report follows an earlier Maeil Business Newspaper report that said Samsung was expected to announce more than 1,000 trillion won in spending.

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Presidential Policy Chief Kim Yong-beom said in a YouTube interview Friday that “very unusual” figures would be unveiled at the meeting. The plans are expected to focus on sectors including semiconductors, AI data centres and physical AI.

Citigroup said in a note that the massive investment led by the government should boost the sustained growth of the Korean semiconductor supply chain. “We are constructive on Korean SPE names, backed by the promising AI demand outlook and accelerated green-field capacity expansion plans,” the note added referring to semiconductor production equipment sector. BLOOMBERG