Overview
- President Lee and company leaders unveiled the state-coordinated ‘three mega-projects’ on Monday, June 29, with Samsung and SK Hynix committing a combined 800 trillion won to build four memory fabs in the southwest.
- Separately, the government and firms announced an initial roughly 550 trillion won phase to build AI data centres targeting about 8.4 gigawatts of capacity, with officials projecting expansion to more than 1,000 trillion won and 18.4 GW by 2035.
- Officials promised expedited permitting and infrastructure support but did not specify the split between public and private cash, and many outlets say most of the 800 trillion won is corporate capex rather than direct government spending.
- Industry experts and some ministers warned the projects face major execution hurdles, including the fabs’ projected need for multiple gigawatts of power, hundreds of thousands of tonnes of industrial water, concentrated supplier networks and trained workers outside Seoul.
- The plan is pitched as regional rebalance for Gwangju and the Honam area, but opposition politicians and analysts questioned political motives and stressed that decade‑long corporate pledges often change as market and technical conditions evolve.