A view of the foundry plant Samsung Electronics is building in Taylor, Texas. Photo courtesy of Samsung Electronics
Major South Korean companies including Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), SK hynix (000660.KS), Hyundai Steel and POSCO are accelerating U.S. investments that together approach 100 trillion won ($72 billion). The Samsung, SK and Hyundai Motor groups are ramping up large-scale projects tied to future industries such as artificial intelligence chips, robots and high-value steel, moves expected to serve as a buffer against the intensifying trade pressure from the Donald Trump administration.
Samsung Electronics said on the 18th that its non-current assets in the Americas, including semiconductor fabs, stood at 40.6414 trillion won as of the end of June, up 47.8% from 27.5055 trillion won at the end of last year. As investment assets grew more sharply than in other regions such as Europe and China over the same period, the Americas’ share of total non-current assets rose to 16% from 11.9%.
An industry official said the increase appears to stem from Samsung’s push to expand its facilities as it accelerates investment and construction at its fab in Taylor, Texas. Samsung is investing a total of $37 billion (about 52 trillion won) in Taylor, where it is building its first and second plants in succession. The first Taylor plant is set to begin operations within this year, while the second is preparing to break ground late this year with a goal of mass production in 2030.
The Taylor fab is a foundry, or contract chipmaking, plant for U.S. Big Tech companies. It will produce and supply AI chips sought by companies such as Tesla and Meta on-site. To this end, Samsung is also reviewing an expansion for a 1.4-nanometer process, more advanced than the 2-nanometer that is currently the most cutting-edge.
SK hynix is also focusing on expanding its U.S. investment. Its non-current assets in the United States totaled 1.1003 trillion won at the end of June, up 48.9% from 738.7 billion won at the end of last year. The increase is attributed to a semiconductor packaging, or back-end, fab that SK hynix has decided to build in West Lafayette, Indiana, with an investment of $3.87 billion (about 5.5 trillion won).
SK hynix will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for the Indiana fab on the 27th and accelerate its investment, targeting operations in the second quarter of 2028. The 560,000-square-meter plant will produce advanced memory products, including high-bandwidth memory (HBM), to supply local Big Tech firms. Given the timeline, HBM4E, a next-generation product due out next year, and HBM5 in 2028 are expected to be the main items.
Following packaging, SK hynix is also reviewing a plan to build a front-end fab in the United States. In a recent interview with CNBC in the United States, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said the company had been “scouting sites for more than a month” for a local front-end fab, signaling an intention to announce an investment plan worth tens of trillions of won if a suitable site is found.
The Hyundai Motor Group has decided to invest $26 billion (about 36.7 trillion won) in the United States by 2028 across areas including a steel mill, automobiles and robots. In particular, it plans to open the Robot Metaplant Application Center (RMAC) during the third quarter to mass-produce the humanoid robot Atlas. Aiming to produce 30,000 robots a year in the United States from 2028, the group recently began due diligence to select a site that will serve as the production base for Atlas.
Affiliate Hyundai Steel will also break ground early next month on an electric-arc-furnace integrated steel mill in Louisiana. The project, with a total investment of $5.8 billion (about 8.2 trillion won), will be split with Hyundai Steel holding 50%, Hyundai Motor and Kia each holding 15%, and the POSCO group holding 20%. The mill, targeting commercial operations in the first quarter of 2029, plans to allocate 1.8 million tons of its 2.7 million-ton annual capacity to high-value automotive steel sheet.
As South Korean companies’ mega-projects in the United States take shape, they are expected to provide considerable support against the Trump administration’s recently intensifying investment pressure. The Trump administration has expressed dissatisfaction, saying the South Korean government is not moving quickly to fulfill the $200 billion U.S. investment pledge agreed in tariff negotiations. Jung Yeon-seung, a professor of business administration at Dankook University, said, “The United States continues to demand direct investment, and our relationship with the United States is important, so there are aspects that make preemptive investment expansion by companies unavoidable.” He added, “In the long term, however, we must manage this so that our core capabilities are not taken away.”