Will South Korea's ambition to build a semiconductor super cluster be realized?

This week, the South Korean government announced plans to build the world's largest semiconductor industrial cluster near Seoul, with a total investment of 622 trillion won by 2047. At the same time, in terms of policy, South Korean President Yoon Seok-yuet said that the government will extend the validity of relevant laws and will continue to implement investment tax reduction policies in the future. The support of funds and policies indicates that South Korea will gain the world's leading competitiveness in the chip field in the near future.

Korean semiconductors have a strong giant effect. South Korea semiconductor rose in the 1980s and 1990s, at that time, it was to seize the opportunity of the decline of Japanese semiconductors, led by the Korean government, with Samsung Group as the pioneer, in the context of the global memory market at that time a downturn in the industry, counter-cyclical investment, laid the industrial foundation for the global memory market with a huge, eternal demand for the recovery of the market prepared. Thus it gradually developed and flourished to this day.

South Korea's dominant position in the memory chip market and strong artificial intelligence ecosystem have given it an advantage in the global AI chip race, so why should the South Korean chip industry, which is already in a leading position, increase its efforts? The reason for South Korea's change is the ambition of an AI power. In the context of today's artificial intelligence craze sweeping the world, many major countries are hoping to get a share of this field, and South Korea is no exception.

As the world's two largest manufacturers of dynamic random access memory chips, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have been actively investing in AI research and development to boost their production capacity. Specifically, Samsung Electronics plans to invest 500 trillion won, including investing 360 trillion won in six new fabs in Yongin, 33 kilometers south of Seoul, and 120 trillion won in three new fabs in Pyeongtaek, 54 kilometers south of Seoul. 20 trillion won will be invested to build three new research facilities in Giheung. In addition, SK Hynix will invest 122 trillion won to build four new fabs in Yongin. The South Korean government expects South Korea's share of the global non-memory chip market to rise significantly from the current 3% to 10% by 2030.

But how do the "ambitions" and actions of South Korean companies and governments affect other countries? The chip industry is one of the most important high-tech industries in the world, which is closely related to the development and security of the country, so all countries are very concerned about the chip industry. At present, South Korea's ambitions in the chip field are more obvious, which raises doubts about its real purpose. In fact, in the context of globalization, the chip industry covers most countries in the world, and there are many powerful competitors. In this case, although Korea has strong technological strength and capital strength, it is not easy to truly dominate the chip field.

In recent years, South Korea cooperated with the United States to suppress the Chinese chip industry, resulting in a significant reduction in South Korea's exports to China, and separated from the world's largest chip market, from this point of view, South Korea's ambition is difficult to achieve. In short, it is good to have this "AI chip ambition" dream, but South Korea's move is contrary to the market. In addition, the United States will not want to be surpassed by South Korea, as a vassal of the United States how much chance to realize their dreams?