South Korea aims to secure its position as a technological powerhouse in the long term through investments running into the hundreds of billions.
A new semiconductor ecosystem is to be established in the south-west of the country with the help of corporate investments amounting to the equivalent of more than $500 billion, President Lee Jae Myung announced on Monday in Seoul.
According to the plan, the leading tech firms Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix will each build two new chip factories, with further investments in data centres and robotics also planned.
"We are starting a new chapter in Korea's history," Lee said.
Samsung and SK Hynix benefit from AI boom
According to the government, the goal is also for domestic companies to double production capacity for DRAM memory chips over the next five years. These provide short-term memory that enables rapid data processing.
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are the world's largest producers of memory chips and have benefited from a massive surge in demand amid the AI boom.
The project is also seen as an attempt by South Korea to maintain its long-term position amid the intensifying technological competition between the two global powers, the United States and China.
