Korea Semiconductor Industry Association: "Welcomes Government's AI Semiconductor Strategy... Systematically Presented"

Government Announces "Semiconductor Industry Strategy for the AI Era"
Association Welcomes the Move in Official Statement
"Highly Values the Presentation of a National-Level Response Strategy"

The Korea Semiconductor Industry Association announced on December 10 that it welcomes the government's release of the "Semiconductor Industry Strategy for the AI Era."

Yonhap News Agency

In a statement issued on the same day, the association said, "In the current global environment where the competition for AI supremacy is unfolding as an all-out battle between nations, this newly announced strategy is highly significant as it systematically presents the vision, goals, and national-level response tasks for Korea's semiconductor industry."

The statement continued, "The semiconductor industry has consistently emphasized that structural changes in the industry-such as the proliferation of AI technology, large-scale investment competition, and increased supply chain uncertainty-are difficult for companies to address through their own efforts alone. In this context, the industry highly values this strategy as a comprehensive national response that broadly reflects the needs of the field."

The association also expressed expectations that "the key tasks-securing leadership in semiconductor technology and production in the AI era, concentrating capabilities to strengthen the system semiconductor ecosystem, enhancing the competitiveness of materials, components, and equipment, fostering high-level talent, and establishing a semiconductor innovation belt in the southern region-will serve as the foundation for structurally enhancing Korea's semiconductor competitiveness."

Earlier that day, the government announced a semiconductor industry development strategy aimed at propelling Korea to become one of the world's top two semiconductor powerhouses, with a focus on creating the world's largest and most advanced cluster. Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Kim Jeonggwan delivered this announcement during a briefing presided over by President Lee Jaemyung at the Yongsan presidential office.

Minister Kim stated that, first and foremost, in order to secure unrivaled semiconductor technologies that competitors cannot surpass, the government will concentrate its research and development (R&D) budget on semiconductors specialized for AI inference. The government will also expand support for the development of compound semiconductors, which are core components for power efficiency and physical AI, as well as for advanced packaging (back-end process) technologies, which have emerged as key technologies.

Specifically, the government will invest 21.59 billion won in next-generation memory by 2032, 1.2676 trillion won in AI-specialized semiconductors by 2030, 260.1 billion won in compound semiconductors by 2031, and 360.6 billion won in advanced packaging by 2031.

Support for the ongoing construction of the semiconductor cluster will also continue without interruption. The plan is to invest more than 700 trillion won by 2047 to establish 10 new semiconductor production fabs. The strategy also includes measures to strengthen Korea's relatively weak system semiconductor ecosystem. To elevate domestic fabless companies to a global level, the government envisions creating a collaborative ecosystem in which demand companies lead from the front and foundries provide close support from the side. The government also pledged to actively foster the materials, components, equipment sectors, and talent, which serve as the backbone of the semiconductor industry.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.