Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have put forward plans to develop the Honam region as a key production hub for next-generation semiconductors. If the plan materializes, the total investment scale of both companies is expected to reach around 500 trillion won. This is an unprecedented and record-breaking scale of advanced industry investment targeting a single region in Korea. The map of South Korea's semiconductor industry, which has been centered on the Seoul metropolitan area including Yongin and Pyeongtaek, will change dramatically to a Honam axis.
According to a comprehensive report from this publication on the 23rd, SK Hynix is reviewing plans to invest approximately 250 trillion won in the Jeollanam-do and Gwangju areas to construct a large-scale semiconductor front-end production facility (fab). A front-end fab is the core base of semiconductor manufacturing where microscopic circuits are engraved on wafers, and it is a field where astronomical amounts of capital are concentrated compared to back-end processes.
Samsung Electronics is also reviewing the construction of new advanced semiconductor production facilities in the Honam region. In the semiconductor industry, there is a strong view that Samsung Electronics' investment scale will exceed that of SK Hynix, so the combined investment of both companies is expected to exceed at least 500 trillion won.
The business community and semiconductor industry view this mega-scale project as not merely corporate recruitment or the establishment of new production plants, but as a national transformation where the government's core policy of "national balanced development strategy" and private enterprises' "supply chain diversification" align. To create a semiconductor mega cluster, large-scale electricity and water supply networks, as well as massive expansion of social infrastructure (SOC) such as roads and railways, are essential. As a result, a chain movement of materials, parts, and equipment (MPE) companies and the concentration of national research and development (R&D) institutes are expected to follow, creating a massive advanced industrial ecosystem throughout the Honam region.
The business community is also noting that investment discussions between the government and companies have recently begun in earnest. This Honam investment is evaluated as a signal of a national paradigm shift, relocating the axis of advanced industries concentrated in the Seoul metropolitan area to the southern region. It goes beyond simple corporate recruitment and is aligned with the government's regional balanced development strategy. It aligns with the government's plans to disperse advanced industries concentrated in the Seoul metropolitan area to non-metropolitan regions and foster industrial hubs in each region. This is because it can simultaneously resolve the chronic challenge of securing power in the semiconductor industry by linking it with Honam's renewable energy belt, while also dispersing the risk of potential supply chain disruptions in case of emergency, creating a win-win effect.
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won met with President Lee Jae-myung on the 19th to discuss investment plans. Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong is also scheduled to meet with President Lee on the 25th. The industry is paying attention to the possibility that the target regions for investment, support measures, and business directions will be unveiled at a major business leaders' roundtable hosted by President Lee on the 29th of this month.
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