Samsung and SK Hynix to Invest 100 Billion Won in Regional National Universities to Foster Semiconductor Talent

As the government pushes forward with a semiconductor mega-project centered in the Honam region, it has been reported that Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are in discussions with Seoul National University (SNU) to establish contract-based semiconductor departments at regional national universities.

Joint research initiatives are also being pursued.

The initiative aims to systematically cultivate the semiconductor talent required for the mega-project by building an education and research platform that connects SNU with regional national universities.

The core of this cooperation involves SNU receiving investments from semiconductor companies to establish contract-based departments at regional national universities and transplanting SNU's curriculum to those institutions.

Discussions are also reportedly underway regarding joint research using semiconductor research centers shared between SNU and regional national universities, as well as joint training sessions at SNU's cleanrooms.

Regional national universities in the Honam region, such as Chonnam National University, and the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), a specialized science and engineering university in Honam, are expected to participate.

The scale of the investment being discussed is approximately 100 billion won per company over five years.

It is reported that this project took shape after SK Hynix first requested cooperation from SNU in the first half of this year, with Samsung Electronics subsequently joining the discussions.

The companies reportedly proposed broad industry-academic cooperation covering AI and semiconductors, and SNU refined the focus toward semiconductors.

Analysts suggest that these cooperation talks are the result of aligned interests between Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, which are in urgent need of semiconductor personnel who will settle in regional areas, and SNU, which has been seeking models to contribute to regional development.

While the government presented the GIST AI and semiconductor curriculum and a southern region joint engineering college as talent cultivation plans for the three major mega-projects, there has been criticism that these are insufficient to support large-scale production bases.

There is anticipation that this collaboration, driven by Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and SNU, could fill the talent gap that has been identified as a challenge for the Honam semiconductor investment plan.

Reported by Kim Minjeong | Video by Kim Na-eun | Graphics by Yook Do-hyun | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.