South Korea launches $584B chip manufacturing initiative with Samsung, SK hynix

The South Korean government today announced a 900 trillion won, or $584 billion, initiative to grow the country’s chip manufacturing capability.

Officials also plan to construct about $357 billion price of artificial intelligence data centers. 

The chip manufacturing initiative can be led by Samsung Electronics Co. and SK hynix Inc., which intend to open two latest fabs apiece. Most of South Korea’s semiconductor production infrastructure is positioned near Seoul. In contrast, the brand new Samsung and SK hynix facilities are set to be in-built South Korea’s southwestern region.

Samsung executives indicated that the corporate will likely construct its fabs within the southwestern city of Gwangju, which is a couple of four-hour drive from Seoul. SK hynix, for its part, remains to be within the means of finding a fab suite. Chey Tae-won, the corporate’s chair, stated today that constructing its current flagship manufacturing campus took nine years.

A large percentage of the upcoming fabs’ capability will likely be dedicated to RAM production. Samsung and SK hynix are the world’s two largest memory manufacturers. The previous company leads within the DRAM and flash segments, while SK hynix accounts for greater than half of worldwide HBM production. HBM is a high-speed memory variety that’s widely utilized in AI chips. 

The upcoming fabs will likely use a combination of recent and legacy nodes. The rationale is that RAM cells, the essential constructing blocks of a memory chip, contain tiny energy storage devices called capacitors. Memory-grade capacitors can only be made using legacy nodes because shrinking them below 10 nanometers causes technical issues.

An HBM chip incorporates not only memory cells but in addition a logic die, a component that helps coordinate the flow of information. It also performs certain related tasks including errors correction. Unlike capacitors, the logic die will likely be produced using cutting-edge processes. 

SK hynix focuses exclusively on memory production, while Samsung also has a processor manufacturing business. The corporate debuted its first two-nanometer processor, the Exynos 2600, in December. It’s a mobile system-on-chip that features a central processing unit, an AI accelerator and a post-quantum cryptography module.

Samsung and SK hynix are committing 800 trillion to South Korea’s chip manufacturing effort. Town of Gwangju, where the previous company plans to construct its fabs, and South Jeolla Province will contribute as much as 20 trillion won. Moreover, industry players plan to spend 81 trillion won on upgrading the chip packaging infrastructure in central South Korea.

Individually, government officials announced plans to speculate greater than 1,000 trillion won in AI data centers by 2035. The goal is so as to add 18.4 gigawatts of computing capability. The initiative is about to incorporate the participation of SK Group, SK hynix’s parent company. 

Photo: Samsung