South Korea plans to invest almost US$7 billion in artificial intelligence (AI) by 2027 in an effort to become a global leader in cutting-edge semiconductors, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said yesterday.
The country is home to Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc — the world’s top two makers of memory chips, including the premium high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in the hardware that powers AI.
The semiconductor industry is a crucial pillar of South Korea’s export-driven economy, and Yoon told a high-powered meeting of officials and tech sector executives that his administration wants the country to lead the world in AI chips.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“It is no exaggeration to say that the future of the semiconductor industry depends on AI,” his office quoted Yoon as saying.
“We will invest 9.4 trillion won [US$6.94 billion] in the AI and AI semiconductor fields by 2027,” and set up a separate 1.4 trillion won fund “to help the growth of innovative AI semiconductor companies,” he said.
Representatives from Samsung, SK Hynix, tech giant Naver Corp and AI chip start-up Sapeon Inc attended the meeting, Yoon’s office said.
Motivated by geopolitical concerns surrounding Taiwan and the larger US-China rivalry, Seoul and Tokyo are vying with Washington and major European nations to boost domestic chip production with massive investment and subsidies.
The AI chip market is currently dominated by Silicon Valley titan Nvidia Corp, to which SK Hynix supplies HBM chips.
South Korea aims to become a world leader “in AI technology and go beyond memory chips to conquer the future AI chip market,” Yoon told the meeting. “The semiconductor competition taking place now is an industrial war and an all-out war between nations.”
Semiconductors are South Korea’s leading export. Outbound shipments last month hit US$11.7 billion, the highest level in almost two years and one-fifth of South Korea’s total exports, South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy figures showed.
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