South Korea will pump $19 billion into the chip sector amid a global construction frenzy

Cleanroom in a semiconductor factory (Image: IM Imagery via AdobeStock – stock.adobe.com)

South Korea announced it will pump 26 trillion won ($19 billion) into its chip-making businesses as semiconductor companies race to build facilities in an “all-out war.”

The support is aimed at helping South Korea keep pace in areas such as chip design and manufacturing.

Countries around the world, from China to the United States, are pouring tens of billions of dollars through subsidies and other measures to support their own chip sectors.

South Korea is already building a chip megacluster in Yongin, south of the capital Seoul, touted as the world’s largest high-tech chip-making complex, to attract chipmaking and factory-less companies.

President Yoon Suk Yeol said the state-owned Korea Development Bank is planning a financial support program worth about 17 trillion won ($12 billion) to support investment by semiconductor companies, according to the presidential office.

“As we all know, semiconductors are an area where there is a nationwide war going on. Win or lose, it depends on who can produce cutting-edge semiconductors first,” Yoon said at a meeting with top government officials, as reported by Reuters.

South Korea, home to the world’s largest memory chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, has lagged behind some rivals in areas such as chip design and contract chip manufacturing.