South Korea Maps Out 800 Trillion Won Chip Buildout and AI Expansion

South Korea’s June 29 industrial roadmap pairs plans for 800 trillion won in semiconductor investment with a 550 trillion won data-center push, tying regional development goals to major power, water and grid upgrades.

The figures cover a broad set of public-private projects, not a single government spending appropriation. The plan calls for four fabs and a supplier and workforce ecosystem in the southwest, which the government aims to establish as the country’s second chip production base. A further 81 trillion won is planned for a packaging hub in Chungcheong, including facilities for high-bandwidth memory chips.

The roadmap is separate from President Lee Jae Myung’s Sept. 23 pledge to double South Korea’s memory-chip production capacity within five years. That pledge was tied to a roughly $520 billion semiconductor investment push.

For data centers, SK, GS and Naver are expected to invest about 550 trillion won, including investment attraction, toward an initial 8.4 gigawatts of capacity. The plan would expand SK’s portion from 5 gigawatts to 15 gigawatts by 2035, bringing the stated total capacity to 18.4 gigawatts.

The government plans to support power and water supply, expand transmission capacity and speed up data-center siting. Its plan calls for facilities to draw on renewable, nuclear and, depending on location, fossil-fuel generation. The government is also pursuing a dedicated electricity rate for AI data centers.

The roadmap’s physical AI and robotics track calls for training 10,000 AI robot specialists over five years, deploying at least 1,000 industry-specific AI robots annually and building a domestic physical AI ecosystem. The government aims to make South Korea a leading physical AI power by 2030.

The plan ties industrial investment to regional development, with faster permits and land preparation and company-oriented industrial cities that include housing, education and research facilities. At the June 29 briefing, Lee called semiconductors, physical AI and AI data centers the three pillars of the country’s next growth push and pledged government support for corporate investment.