Samsung drives $400bn South Korea plan to propel key tech

South Korea’s largest companies including Samsung Electronics will join a government plan to pour some $422bn into fields including chips and electric vehicles, the country’s most aggressive effort to date to stake out pivotal technologies.

As part of the plan, Samsung plans to spend about KRW300tn ($229bn) over the next two decades to build a new chip cluster on the outskirts of Seoul.

The move is geared toward South Korea’s ambition to lead global chip manufacturing.

South Korea’s government on Wednesday said it would invest billions into fields including chips, batteries, robots, electric vehicles and biotechnology.

The blueprint includes the creation of hubs housing mega-plants to manufacture semiconductors, as well as design houses and material suppliers to bolster the country’s own supply chain.

Samsung’s investment would be the core of that push.

Read: Samsung is first to start mass production of 3-nanometre chips