Samsung Group will announce an investment program on Monday that dwarfs everything that came before it: 1,000 trillion won — roughly $648 billion — to be invested in South Korea over the next ten years. It would be the largest investment package ever announced by a South Korean company.
What’s planned
The investments span several sectors. Up to 300 trillion won could flow into new chip factories planned for the country’s southwest. Add AI data centers, battery factories, and display production facilities to the mix.
The announcement is expected during a meeting with President Lee Jae Myung at the presidential office. SK Hynix executives are also expected to attend — signaling that South Korea’s semiconductor industry is presenting a united front.
Why now?
The timing isn’t coincidental. Global demand for AI chips shows no signs of slowing. NVIDIA is seeing record demand, and countries like the US, China, and Japan are investing heavily in domestic chip capacity. South Korea — home to Samsung and SK Hynix, which together dominate the global memory chip market — wants to extend its lead.
At the same time, Samsung is under pressure: its stock has underperformed compared to NVIDIA and TSMC, and its HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) chips for AI accelerators were long behind the competition.
The political angle
The investment is politically charged too. The opposition argues that the location choice — the country’s southwest — is politically motivated. The accusation: the government is pressuring conglomerates to invest in specific electoral strongholds.
Samsung and the government will see it differently. For President Lee, the investment program is a flagship of his economic policy. For Samsung, it’s the chance to build AI infrastructure at a scale that only a handful of companies worldwide can match.
Putting it in perspective
$648 billion over ten years — that’s more than the GDP of many countries. For comparison: Microsoft’s planned AI investments for this year alone sit at around $80 billion. Samsung is thinking on a completely different scale.
Whether the money will be invested wisely remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: the race for AI infrastructure just reached a new level.
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