South Korea is racing to lock in its dominance over memory chips and next-generation AI, unveiling a vast, long-term investment plan that could reshape both its own economy and global tech supply chains.

Early June 2026: Laying out the megaprojects

In late June, the government and leading conglomerates announced a national strategy to pour about $1 trillion into “flagship megaprojects” spanning semiconductors, AI data centers, and humanoid robots by 2028.¹ President Lee Jae Myung framed the effort as a contest for technological supremacy, calling semiconductors, physical AI, and AI data centers the “triple axis” for South Korea’s next leap forward in a televised address.³

At the same briefing, Lee argued that existing chip hubs around Yongin and Pyeongtaek “have already reached their limits,” urging companies to move southward and “secure overwhelming production capacity in advance.”³

Corporate commitments: Samsung and SK Hynix move

South Korean memory giants Samsung and SK Hynix, already enjoying record profits amid a global memory crunch dubbed “RAMageddon,” committed to a massive expansion of production.³ TechCrunch reported the two firms plan to invest about $518 billion in four new memory fabrication plants in the country’s historically underserved southwest, plus an additional $52 billion for a high-bandwidth memory packaging hub in the central region.³

In parallel reporting, the Financial Times noted that Samsung and SK Hynix will invest hundreds of billions of dollars alongside the state to build new factories aimed at meeting “surging demand for memory chips.”² Ars Technica described the broader initiative as a $1 trillion push to expand global memory supply and build new AI data centers, while also helping Hyundai and Boston Dynamics commercialize humanoid robots by 2028.¹

Broader ambitions and emerging concerns

The plan allocates roughly $356 billion for AI data centers through 2035, backed by Korean tech and energy conglomerates such as SK, GS, and Naver, as Seoul seeks to become an “irreplaceable” AI power by 2026.³ Lee emphasized that corporate investments reflect companies’ own judgment, insisting the state’s role is to ensure they can “invest without losses.”³

Yet the timeline is uncertain. SK Hynix’s chair has noted it took nine years to fully build a previous fab cluster, raising questions about how quickly new capacity can ease shortages.¹ At home, unions and the public are also debating job displacement from humanoid robots and how to share the windfall from AI-era chip profits, underscoring the social stakes of South Korea’s high-tech gamble.¹