Samsung will invest a total of 2,655 trillion won in Korea to foster cutting-edge Mirae Industries.
Lee Jae-yong, chairman of Samsung Electronics, attended the "National Briefing on Korea's Three Mega Projects for a Great Leap" presided over by President Lee Jae-myung at the Blue House on the 29th and said, "Following Giheung, Hwaseong, and Pyeongtaek, the investment schedule for the Yongin national industrial complex has accelerated significantly, and the time to prepare a new complex has also been moved up," mentioning Gwangju as a candidate for the next semiconductor cluster.
Samsung Electronics issued a press release immediately after the briefing to detail a 2,655 trillion won domestic investment plan at the group level. The gist is to expand production bases nationwide focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors, robots, batteries, information technology (IT) parts, and materials.
Samsung will inject 2,030 trillion won to develop semiconductor clusters such as the Pyeongtaek campus and the Yongin national industrial complex. It plans to invest 625 trillion won in Honam, Chungcheong, and Yeongnam, focusing on AI Semiconductor, robots, batteries, and IT parts and materials.
◇ "Preemptive response to shifts in the technology paradigm… strengthening future competitiveness"
The investment plan is meant to respond to a trend in which demand for semiconductors, data centers, robots, and power infrastructure rises simultaneously with the spread of AI. Samsung said it is "to preemptively respond to technology paradigm shifts occurring at an unimaginable speed in the AI era and to strengthen future competitiveness."
To respond early to explosively growing semiconductor demand, Samsung plans to invest a total of 425 trillion won in Honam. Of this, 400 trillion won will go to semiconductors. Samsung Electronics will pursue building a new semiconductor fab (factory) in Gwangju and establishing a Digital Twin-based innovation hub.
Gwangju was presented as the next semiconductor cluster candidate after Giheung–Hwaseong, Pyeongtaek, and Yongin. At the briefing, the chairman said, "We are planning to select Gwangju as a candidate site, where significant incentives are expected for securing power, water, and talent, as well as various infrastructure."
Samsung expects that once the Gwangju semiconductor cluster is created, it will serve as one of two major production bases leading Korea's semiconductor industry along with the Seoul metropolitan area. Samsung Electronics will build a Digital Twin-based innovation hub plant for smart appliances at the Gwangju site and set up production facilities for heat pumps and air handlers needed for AI data centers.
The Honam investment also includes AI data centers and energy projects. Samsung SDS will build an AI data center in Solar Sea City, Haenam, South Jeolla Province. Samsung's plan is to use this as a sovereign AI base that reduces reliance on overseas big tech and builds and operates AI infrastructure domestically. Samsung C&T will push investments in solar power generation facilities, a nuclear power-based hydrogen production facility, and a green hydrogen research and development (R&D) demonstration complex in Honam. Samsung Electronics also plans to build a global logistics center in Gochang, North Jeolla Province.
It will invest a total of 140 trillion won in the Chungcheong region. The key is a high bandwidth memory (HBM) fab. Samsung Electronics will establish HBM fabs in Cheonan and Onyang. The chairman said, "HBM, which is indispensable for training and inference of AI models, requires cutting-edge technology to stack semiconductor chips and demands main-fab-level processes," adding, "We will concentrate investment in HBM fabs in the Chungcheong region, including Cheonan and Onyang, alongside existing back-end semiconductor fabs."
◇ Applying robots to existing manufacturing… cultivating it into an advanced industry
Samsung Display will build a production base in Asan for foldables and other next-generation smartphone displays and for ultra-high-resolution microdisplays. Microdisplays are considered ultra-small, high-resolution displays used in Extended Reality (XR) devices such as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Mixed Reality (MR).
Samsung SDI will establish a global mother factory for next-generation batteries in Cheonan. A mother factory is a core plant that verifies new technologies and mass-production processes and then spreads them to other production bases. Samsung Electro-Mechanics will build a package substrate line for AI servers in Sejong.
It will invest 60 trillion won in the Yeongnam region. Samsung plans to transform existing manufacturing into advanced industry by integrating artificial intelligence transformation (AX) and robot transformation (RX) into its core manufacturing.
In Gumi, Samsung Electronics will establish a mother factory that will serve as a global manufacturing innovation hub for smartphones, along with mass-production lines for physical AI and Humanoid Robot. Samsung SDS also plans to build an AI data center in Gumi. Physical AI refers to AI in which robots and machines perceive and judge data in the physical world and then act physically.
In Busan, Samsung Electro-Mechanics will establish multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) and state-of-the-art AI package substrate lines. In Ulsan, Samsung SDI will expand investment in next-generation solid-state batteries and battery energy storage systems (BESS). In Geoje, Samsung Heavy Industries will create a base for building high value-added ships.
The chairman also mentioned Samsung's bio investment plan that day. The person said, "As a strategic business for Samsung with significant growth potential, the bio business will receive concentrated investment in Songdo, Incheon, to develop it into the world's largest bio complex."
◇ Government announces three mega projects… "Pledge to support power, water, land, and permits"
At the briefing, the government presented semiconductors, physical AI, and AI data centers as the three mega projects. In semiconductors, it will push to complete production bases in the Seoul metropolitan area early, build a second production base in the southwest region, and foster a packaging base in the Chungcheong region. It will build four semiconductor fabs in the southwest region with a total scale of 800 trillion won and invest 81 trillion won in the Chungcheong region to create an HBM packaging base.
In physical AI, it aims to leap into the global top three in AI robots by promoting AI transformation in manufacturing, securing core parts and data, and building a region-centered mass-production base. In AI data centers, it announced plans to work with SK, GS, and Naver to build 8.4 GW of data centers and to foster related solution industries such as power, cooling, and servers.
The government also pledged support for power, water, land, and permits necessary for corporations to invest. At the briefing, the president said, "I will take personal responsibility to ensure that swift one-stop administrative procedures are implemented." On support for power and water, the person added, "Because the Special Act on Semiconductors specifies that priority support can be given to local areas, we will take clear responsibility for this as well."
Samsung's plan is characterized by maintaining its existing Seoul metropolitan area–centered semiconductor investments while expanding advanced industry bases to Honam, Chungcheong, and Yeongnam. It is seen as a strategy to simultaneously expand production, packaging, batteries, robots, and energy infrastructure in line with growing semiconductor demand, the rise in AI data centers, and the spread of physical AI.