The support package also includes approximately $732 million to support fabless chip companies in South Korea
South Korea announced this week $19 billion in funding for the nation’s semiconductor businesses with an emphasis on chip design and contract manufacturing. The move follows similar announcements coming in from around the world as the growing need for advanced chips in areas like AI is becoming clear.
“As we all know, semiconductors are a field where all-out national warfare is underway,” South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol said during a meeting of government officials. “Win or lose, that depends on who can make cutting-edge semiconductors first.”
Yoon also stated that $12 billion was planned through state-run Korea Development Bank to back investments by semiconductor companies. The support package also includes approximately $732 million to support fabless companies and semiconductor SMEs, as well as extended tax benefits for chip investments to increase employment.
South Korea’s biggest chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK hynix committed last year to build the world’s largest chip center using $456 billion of private funding, and according to local news source Yonhap News Agency this January, the pair revealed plans to put $471.1 billion towards increasing chip production capacity in a 21 million square-metermega cluster.
Earlier this week, Belgium’s nanoelectronics R&D hub imec announced that research labs in Europe will receive 2.5 billion euros ($2.72 billion) in funding under the European Chips Act, announced in 2023, and earlier in the month, the U.S. government said it’s seeking proposals from eligible applicants for the development, validation and use of digital twins for semiconductor manufacturing, advanced packaging, assembly and test processes.
