[Anchor]
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix announced today, June 29, that their combined investment, including new semiconductor plants, exceeds 4,700 trillion won. The companies determined that current supply infrastructure is insufficient to meet the explosive demand for AI. The firms also requested government support to accelerate the pace of these investments.
Reporter Hong Yeongjae has the story.
[Reporter]
Securing memory semiconductors is the key bottleneck that will determine the speed of the AI race.
[Lee Jae-yong / Chairman of Samsung Electronics: The market view is that despite active investments by semiconductor companies, it is not enough to meet the explosive demand.]
Samsung has decided to move up the completion of its Yongin cluster by seven years, and SK Hynix by 12 years, but the industry believes that supply will remain tight for the time being.
[Chey Tae-won / Chairman of SK Group: Even if we move up the completion dates for our facilities in Yongin and Cheongju, I believe we will continue to suffer from supply shortages for memory semiconductors in the future.]
Ultimately, with the government and companies agreeing that production capacity must be expanded beyond original plans, Samsung has selected Gwangju and SK Hynix has chosen the southwestern region as new production hubs for semiconductors.
The decision was based on the advantages in securing power, water, and personnel, as well as the expectation of government support.
Including the new semiconductor plants, Samsung announced a total investment of 2,655 trillion won in the Yongin cluster, AI data centers, and physical AI, while SK Hynix announced 2,100 trillion won, bringing the combined investment of the two companies to over 4,755 trillion won.
The key is how quickly these announced investment plans can be realized.
[Gyeong Hee-kwon / Research Fellow at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade: Suppliers need to move in as well, which means sending people down there, but we are already not seeing enough personnel just to run the existing operations in Yongin and Pyeongtaek.]
The companies also emphasized the need for speed and requested government support.
[Jun Young-hyun / Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics: Rapid one-stop administrative support is urgently needed.]
[Kwak Noh-jung / CEO of SK Hynix: The Yongin industrial complex is classified as a general industrial complex, so it is currently unable to receive the benefits of the Special Act on Semiconductors.]
As companies commit to these massive investments, the speed and execution of government support are now being put to the test.
Reported by Kim Se-gyeong | Video by Kim Jong-mi | Graphics by Lee Jun-ho
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