South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in on Thursday promised to provide support and foster the local semiconductor industry.
Moon spoke at an event in Samsung’s Pyeontaek chip plant to promote the local chip industry.
On the same day, the government announced that it would offer 40% to 50% tax credits for research and development as well as investment in facilities related to semiconductors.
It will also form a fund over 1 trillion won in value to support expansion in 8-inch foundry, components, materials, equipment and advanced packaging, it said.
The government and the local electric utility burden up to 50% of the cost in building semiconductor facilities related to core strategic technologies, the government also said.
South Korea’s announcement is a response to major countries around the world announcing support for their respective chip industries. The Biden Administration in the US recently announced a US$50 billion plan to foster chip manufacturing in American soil. The US is also planning to form a federal fund worth 17 trillion won to build chip manufacturing facilities. China, meanwhile, previous announced it was spending 173 trillion won from 2015 to 2025 to it semiconductor industry.
President Moon promised to provide comprehensive support in taxes, finances, regulations and backbone infrastructure to South Korea’s chip industry to make the country a chip powerhouse.
At the event, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix that they will invest a combined 510 trillion won for the next ten years in the sector.
Samsung is planning to spend 171 trillion won in its logic semiconductor businesses.
SK Hynix will be spending 110 trillion won at its factories in Icheon and Cheongju by 2030. It will also spend 120 trillion won for the next ten years at the chip cluster in Yongin, the firm said.
Chip equipment maker ASML is planning to spend 240 billion won at Hwaseong City in South Korea. Lam Research will also double its facilities in South Korea by 2025.
