South Korea on Monday unveiled a broad industrial strategy focused on semiconductors and artificial intelligence, with President Lee Jae Myung announcing more than $576 billion in chip investment aimed at cementing global leadership and rebalancing growth.
The plan, anchored by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, marks Lee's boldest push yet to align South Korea's AI and chip ambitions with his pledge to narrow regional disparities and revive economies beyond the Seoul metropolitan area.
Flanked by the chiefs of the world's two biggest memory chipmakers, Lee cast the initiative as a "great leap forward," centered on the "triple axis" of semiconductors, physical AI and data centers.
"We must secure the core elements of AI faster than any other country," the president said in a televised address.
Samsung and SK Hynix will invest 800 trillion won ($518.30 billion) to build two new chip fabrication sites each in South Korea's southwest region, industry minister Kim Jung-kwan said.
