The Race for Semiconductor Supremacy: How to Secure Technological Competitiveness?

[Anchor]

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are building additional semiconductor plants not only in the southwestern region, as recently announced, but also in Pyeongtaek and Yongin. While the AI boom is driving up demand for semiconductors, global chipmakers are also racing to expand their production capacity. Experts point out that maintaining technological competitiveness will be the deciding factor for success.

Reporter Jeong Seong-jin has the story.

[Reporter]

This is Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, where construction of SK Hynix's semiconductor fabrication plants, or fabs, is in full swing.

A total of four fabs are being built here.

Samsung Electronics also plans to add six more in Yongin and two in Pyeongtaek.

Including the southwestern region, Samsung will be adding 10 more fabs, and SK Hynix will be adding six.

Samsung currently operates around 20 semiconductor production lines in Korea, while SK Hynix operates seven. This means Samsung is adding capacity equivalent to half of its existing operations, while SK Hynix is effectively doubling its current number of lines.

Driven by an explosion in demand for memory semiconductors, global chipmakers such as Micron of the U.S. and CXMT of China are also competitively expanding their investments.

While forecasts suggest a shortage of memory semiconductors until 2030 due to the spread of AI, the possibility of a slowdown in AI growth cannot be ruled out.

[Kim Yang-paeng / Senior Researcher at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade: It is true that semiconductor companies around the world are investing heavily in expanding production capacity and that demand is increasing, but global semiconductor supply is also expected to increase significantly...]

If they fail to maintain their technological lead as the world's top two memory semiconductor manufacturers, these large-scale investments could become a liability in the event of an oversupply.

[Park Jae-keun / Professor of Convergence Electronics Engineering at Hanyang University: If the technological gap in memory semiconductors is not maintained, China could take the market we are aiming for. Therefore, we must continue to lead in technological development...]

Although the government has announced plans to build an innovation hub for semiconductor materials, parts, and equipment in the southeastern region, experts point out that building a semiconductor ecosystem in the southwestern region is also necessary to secure competitiveness.

Currently, only 2.6% of semiconductor materials, parts, and equipment companies are located in the southwestern region.

As securing top-tier talent is considered key, there is an urgent need for strong incentives to attract professionals and the expansion of research infrastructure linked to regional national universities.

Reported by Jeong Seong-jin | Video by Shin Jin-soo and Kim Se-kyung | Video Editing by Park Chun-bae | Graphics by Kim Ye-ji
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.