South Korean President Lee Jae-myung on the 6th instructed relevant authorities to swiftly execute the large-scale investment plan in semiconductors and artificial intelligence (AI) announced last week. He expressed a strong sense of urgency that delays in permit approvals, land acquisition, and infrastructure development such as power and water could undermine South Korea’s efforts to seize leadership in advanced industries.<\/p>\n
At a government meeting held the same day, President Lee stated, “Under these circumstances, the outcome is determined by who moves faster and who secures the lead first. Speed is the only thing that matters,” urging that all procedures be accelerated as much as possible.<\/p>\n
The massive investment plan involves the South Korean government collaborating with private companies such as Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and SK Hynix (000660.KS) to invest a total of over \u20a96,200 trillion (approximately $4.0 trillion) in semiconductors, AI, and data centers. President Lee made clear his intention to rush the transition to the execution phase just one week after the plan’s announcement.<\/p>\n
The Permit Barrier: Lessons from Yongin Complex<\/p>\n
President Lee cited the Yongin Industrial Complex as a past example. The complex took six years from site designation to groundbreaking, yet this was still considered “relatively fast” in South Korea. President Lee took issue with this reality and instructed that approval procedures, including environmental impact assessments, be shortened as much as possible. He also stated that procedures normally handled sequentially “should be processed in parallel,” demanding an end to administrative silos.<\/p>\n
Preemptive Infrastructure Development for Power<\/p>\n
Semiconductor manufacturing requires enormous amounts of electricity and water. President Lee emphasized the need to “preemptively secure” power and water infrastructure ahead of project progress. Regarding electricity in particular, he pointed out that despite the expansion of renewable energy adoption, companies remain concerned about securing stable baseload power sources. He ordered officials to proactively address such industry anxieties.<\/p>\n
The Massive Plan Exceeding \u20a96,200 Trillion<\/p>\n
The outline of the investment plan announced by South Korea last week is as follows:<\/p>\n
Investment Entity\/TargetInvestment ScaleKey DetailsSamsung Electronics, SK Hynix\u20a9400 trillion each (approx. $261.0 billion)Construction of new semiconductor manufacturing hubs in the southwestern regionChungcheong Region Semiconductor Packaging Cluster\u20a981 trillion (approx. $52.9 billion)Advanced packaging technology integration hubSouth Korean Government (Advanced Technology Sectors)Approx. \u20a91,461 trillion (approx. $953.4 billion)Infrastructure development for AI, semiconductors, data centers, etc.<\/p>\n
Note: Exchange rates based on $1 = \u20a91,530.9, \u00a51 = \u20a99.48 (approximate as of July 6, 2026). Total public-private investment exceeds \u20a96,200 trillion.<\/p>\n
President Lee also stated that government officials and corporate executives should begin discussions on specific project sites, signaling his intent to accelerate the plan’s materialization.<\/p>\n
Strong Exports Bolster ‘AI Powerhouse’ Strategy<\/p>\n
Behind this investment acceleration is the fact that South Korea’s exports continue to maintain record-breaking strength. According to preliminary figures released by South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on July 1, June exports surged 70.9% year-on-year to $102.25 billion, surpassing the $100 billion mark for the first time in a single month. Among these, semiconductor exports jumped 199.5% to $44.82 billion, exceeding $40 billion for the first time. Cumulative exports for the first half of 2026 reached $496.7 billion, putting the annual target of surpassing $1 trillion for the first time within sight.<\/p>\n
South Korea’s semiconductor industry, while still facing price fluctuation risks in traditional memory chips, is accelerating its shift toward high-value-added products, riding the tailwind of surging AI demand. President Lee campaigned on a pledge to join the ranks of the “world’s top three AI powers,” and now, entering his second year in office, this is a critical moment for policy realization. With views that the ruling party underperformed in June’s local elections, the administration also faces pressure to quickly make large-scale projects visible.<\/p>\n
Decentralization from the Capital Region to the Southwest<\/p>\n
In this investment plan, South Korea’s southwestern region is frequently named as a new semiconductor manufacturing hub. The region, known for its agriculture and fisheries industries, has in recent years actively courted advanced industries such as AI, smart energy, biopharmaceuticals, and secondary batteries. The Lee administration aims to simultaneously pursue balanced national development and enhanced industrial competitiveness by expanding the concentration of advanced industries, previously skewed toward the capital region and Chungcheong Province, into the southwest.<\/p>\n
Semiconductor manufacturing requires vast tracts of land and stable supplies of water and power. The southwestern region, where securing industrial land is easier and operating costs are lower compared to the capital region, is considered an ideal location for large-scale production bases. The South Korean government has positioned the region as a “second semiconductor production base” and plans to foster it as a national strategy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Korean President Lee Jae-myung on the 6th instructed relevant authorities to swiftly execute the large-scale investment plan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1137,2588,41289,31,146,3490,276,642,275,33,41288],"class_list":["post-76311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-south-korea","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-baseload-power","tag-korea","tag-lee-jae-myung","tag-renewable-energy","tag-samsung-electronics","tag-semiconductor","tag-sk-hynix","tag-south-korea","tag-yongin-industrial-complex"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}