# South Korea announces $880 billion 10-year AI and semiconductor investment

> South Korea is making an enormous, coordinated bet on the chips and AI that underpin the whole industry. The government has unveiled a plan worth about 1.35 trillion won, roughly $880 billion, over ten years spanning semiconductors, AI and robotics, with Samsung and SK Hynix committing a combined $518 billion to new fabrication plants. The numbers are staggering in national terms. The spending amounts to around 5% of South Korea's 2024 GDP, and Samsung alone plans to lay out more than $70 billion in 2026 on expansion and research. Between them the two chipmakers intend to build four new fabs. The move underscores that the AI race is as much about physical capacity as it is about clever models. Advanced memory and logic chips are the raw material for every frontier system, and a country that dominates their supply holds real leverage. For Korea, this is an attempt to lock in that position for the next decade.

_Section: [Daily AI Updates](https://www.wortins.com/daily-ai) · Source: Bloomberg · Published Sunday, July 12, 2026_

## Wortins' read

South Korea is making an enormous, coordinated bet on the chips and AI that underpin the whole industry. The government has unveiled a plan worth about 1.35 trillion won, roughly $880 billion, over ten years spanning semiconductors, AI and robotics, with Samsung and SK Hynix committing a combined $518 billion to new fabrication plants. The numbers are staggering in national terms. The spending amounts to around 5% of South Korea's 2024 GDP, and Samsung alone plans to lay out more than $70 billion in 2026 on expansion and research. Between them the two chipmakers intend to build four new fabs. The move underscores that the AI race is as much about physical capacity as it is about clever models. Advanced memory and logic chips are the raw material for every frontier system, and a country that dominates their supply holds real leverage. For Korea, this is an attempt to lock in that position for the next decade.

## Source

[Read the full story at Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-28/samsung-sk-reportedly-to-invest-1-3-trillion-over-10-years)

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