Dec. 15, 2025 –
SEOUL - South Korea is considering building a 4.5 trillion won ($3.06 billion) foundry to make essential chips, funded by state and private investment, part of efforts to gain an edge in a race to nurture local semiconductor firms as demand for AI chips grows.
President Lee Jae Myung presided over a meeting on Wednesday attended by executives from chipmakers, including Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), opens new tab and SK Hynix (000660.KS), opens new tab, as well as policymakers and experts, to lay out plans to maintain the country's lead in memory chips, strengthen the foundry business and expand fabless chip design in the artificial intelligence era.