Samsung to spend $228 billion on the world’s largest chip facility as part of South Korea tech plan
Samsung said it will make a 300 trillion Korean won investment in a new semiconductor facility in South Korea over the next two decades. It is part of a broader tech investment plan by the South Korean government.
SeongJoon Cho | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Samsung Electronics said Wednesday it plans to invest 300 trillion Korean won ($228 billion) in a new semiconductor complex in South Korea, which the government says will be the world’s largest, as part of an aggressive push by the country to take a lead in critical technologies.
The investment will happen over the years to 2042, a Samsung spokesperson told CNBC.
The South Korean government is looking to join together its biggest technology companies to spur development in key areas. The government said Wednesday that 550 trillion won will be invested by the private sector by 2026 in areas including chips, displays, batteries and electric vehicles.
But the big focus is on semiconductors — critical components that go into everything from smartphones to cars — and that have increasingly become a geopolitical focal point. South Korea’s expansive move is seen as a way to catch up with the U.S.’s own aggressive chip investments.
“President Yoon Suk-yeol said, while it’s important for a high-tech industry such as semiconductors to grow through a mid-to-longer term plan, we must swiftly push ahead with these plans as if it’s a matter of life and death, given the current situation of global competition,” Yoon’s spokesperson Lee Do-woon said in a briefing.
The new 300 trillion won chip complex Samsung is building will be just outside of the South Korean capital of Seoul.
South Korea’s government aims to connect chip facilities in the area from Samsung to other companies to create a “semiconductor mega cluster.” The idea is to link up various parts of the semiconductor supply chain from chip design to manufacturing.
“In selecting the new locations, we’ve taken into consideration the synergy effect that could be seen from existing semiconductor clusters,” Lee Chang-yang, South Korea’s trade, industry and energy minister, said.
The South Korean government said that companies will build five chip manufacturing facilities in the cluster.
Samsung is the world’s biggest memory chip maker. These are semiconductors that go into devices such as laptops and servers. South Korea is also home to SK Hynix, the second-biggest memory chip maker.
Semiconductor rivalries heat up
Semiconductors have become a highly politicized technology and have created a complex dynamic between allied countries, driven by the U.S.’s twofold strategy.
On the one hand, Washington has pushed to bring chip manufacturing back to U.S. shores and has got commitments from companies including Samsung and Taiwan’s TSMC, the biggest contract chipmaker, to build factories.
On the other hand, the U.S. has sought to hold back China’s semiconductor development. Last year, Washington introduced sweeping rules aimed at cutting China off from obtaining or manufacturing key chips and components and the tools required to make them.
In its tech battle with China, the U.S. has looked to strike alliances with South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and the Netherlands to help cut China off from key technology.
But at the same time, the U.S. signed the Chips and Science Act which includes $52 billion in support for companies producing chips in a bid to attract investment into America and boost the country’s standing in the semiconductor industry.
That has created a competitive landscape between allied nations even as they seek partnerships.
“As of now, every country is trying to build its own competitive strengths. There is a flood of tax breaks and capital commitments from governments seeking to onshore semiconductor production,” Pranay Kotasthane, chairperson of the high tech geopolitics program at the Takshashila Institution, told CNBC.
“The impulse for competition is stronger than the impulse for cooperation. Incentives might change if the planned incentives don’t work or when the semiconductor industry sees a downward trend in the investment cycle.“
Samsung manufacturing push
For Samsung, the government’s support could help it catch up with TSMC — the biggest contract chipmaker. TSMC manufactures some of the most advanced semiconductors in the world for companies such as Apple.
Samsung, known for consumer electronics and memory chips, is looking to ramp up its contract chipmaking, or foundry business.
In October, the company laid out an ambitious roadmap to manufacture the most advanced chips in the world by 2027.
Samsung shares closed 1.3% higher in South Korea on Wednesday after the announcement of its chip investment plans.
Mike Intrator, co-founder and CEO of CoreWeave, speaks at the Nasdaq headquarters in New York on March 28, 2025.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images News | Getty Images
CoreWeave shares fell about 6% in extended trading on Tuesday even as the provider of artificial intelligence infrastructure beat estimates for second-quarter revenue
Here’s how the company did in comparison with LSEG consensus:
- Earnings per share: Loss of 21 cents
- Revenue: $1.21 billion vs. $1.08 billion expected
Revenue more than tripled from $395.4 million a year earlier, CoreWeave said in a statement. The company registered a $290.5 million net loss, compared with a $323 million loss in second quarter of 2024. CoreWeave’s earnings per share figure wasn’t immediately comparable with estimates from LSEG.
CoreWeave’s operating margin shrank to 2% from 20% a year ago due primarily to $145 million in stock-based compensation costs. This is CoreWeave’s second quarter of full financial results as a public company following its IPO in March.
CoreWeave pointed to an expansion in business with OpenAI, a major client and investor. Also during the quarter, CoreWeave acquired Weights and Biases, a startup with software for monitoring AI models, for $1.4 billion.
In May, management touted 420% revenue growth, alongside widening losses and nearly $9 billion in debt. The stock still doubled anyway over the course of the next month.
CoreWeave shares became available on Nasdaq at the end of the first quarter, after the company sold 37.5 shares at $40 each, yielding $1.5 billion in proceeds. As of Tuesday’s close, the stock was trading at $148.75 for a market cap of over $72 billion.
A CoreWeave data center project with up to 250 megawatts of capacity is set to be delivered in 2026, the company said in the statement.
Executives will discuss the results and issue guidance on a conference call starting at 5 p.m. ET.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
WATCH: Citi’s Tyler Radke’s bullish call on CoreWeave, upgraded to buy
U.S. President Donald Trump (L) invites Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to speak in the Cross Hall of the White House during an event on “Investing in America” on April 30, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Andrew Harnik | Getty Images
The Trump administration is still working out the details of its 15% export tax on Nvidia and AMD and could bring deals of this kind to more companies, the White House’s Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.
“Right now it stands with these two companies. Perhaps it could expand in the future to other companies,” said Leavitt, the White House’s spokesperson.
“The legality of it, the mechanics of it, is still being ironed out by the Department of Commerce, and I would defer you to them for any further details on how it will actually be implemented,” she continued.
President Donald Trump confirmed on Monday that he had negotiated a deal with Nvidia in which the U.S. government approves export licenses for the China-specific H20 AI chip in exchange for a 15% cut of revenue. Advanced Micro Devices also got licenses approved in exchange for a proportion of its China sales, the White House confirmed.
“I said, ‘If I’m going to do that, I want you to pay us as a country something, because I’m giving you a release,'” Trump said Monday.
“We follow rules the U.S. government sets for our participation in worldwide markets,” Nvidia said in a statement this week.
Trump said the export licenses for AMD and Nvidia were a done deal. But lawyers and experts who follow trade have warned that Trump’s deal may be complicated because of existing laws that regulate how the government can charge fees for export licenses.
The Commerce Department didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
The H20 is Nvidia’s Chinese-specific chip that is slowed down on purpose to comply with U.S. export relations. It’s related to the H100 and H200 chips that are used in the U.S., and was introduced after the Biden administration implemented export controls on artificial intelligence chips in 2023.
Earlier this year, Nvidia said that it was on track to sell more than $8 billion worth of H20 chips in a single quarter before the Trump administration in April said that it would require a license to export the chip.
Trump signaled in July that he was likely to approve export licenses for the chip after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang visited the White House.
The U.S. regulates AI chips like those made by Nvidia for national security reasons, saying that they could be used by the Chinese government to leapfrog U.S. capabilities in AI, or they could be used by the Chinese military or linked groups.
The Chinese government has been encouraging local companies in recent weeks to avoid using Nvidia’s H20 chips for any government or national security-related work, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
WATCH: Access to Nvidia’s H20 won’t hand China an AI advantage: Analyst
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