Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong said on the 29th that Gwangju is being planned as a candidate site for a semiconductor production complex.
Lee said at the national briefing on the three mega projects held at the Blue House on the afternoon of the same day, "Because of AI, the technology paradigm is changing at a speed beyond imagination," and explained, "The market's view is that even with aggressive investment by semiconductor corporations, it is not enough to meet explosive demand."
Agreeing with President Lee Jae-myung's words that "only a speed race is the way to survive," Lee said, "Following Giheung, Hwaseong and Pyeongtaek, the investment schedule for the Yongin national industrial complex has been accelerated significantly, and the time to prepare a new complex has also been moved up," adding, "Among several regions, we are planning Gwangju—which is expected to offer many incentive supports such as securing power, water, talent and infrastructure—as a candidate site for a semiconductor production complex."
Lee added, "We will concentrate investment in the Chungcheong region, including Cheonan and Onyang, for HBM fabs—essential for AI model training and inference—together with existing semiconductor back-end packaging."
In addition, Lee said the Humanoid Robot will be in Gumi, North Gyeongsang, the energy storage system handled by Samsung SDI will be in Ulsan, South Gyeongsang, and investment will continue in the next-generation shipbuilding industry in Geoje, South Gyeongsang.
He also emphasized that cutting-edge package substrates handled by Samsung Electro-Mechanics will see expanded investment centered on the Busan plant, and that bio will receive concentrated investment in Songdo, Incheon, to grow it into the world's largest bio complex.
Lee said, "We will always maintain a sense of crisis and devote ourselves to customer-focused, quality-centered cutting-edge technological innovation and the cultivation of outstanding talent—the fundamentals of businesspeople—so that we can lead the global competition with the 'ultra-gap' President Lee mentioned."