Samsung outlines a $90 billion investment strategy for the Chungcheong area of South Korea.

      Samsung Group has announced a significant investment for the next decade in domestic manufacturing, amounting to 140 trillion won, approximately $90 billion, dedicated to displays, memory chips, batteries, and chip-packaging materials in South Korea’s central Chungcheong provinces.

      At an event in Asan hosted by President Lee Jae Myung, Samsung Display CEO Yi Chung provided details on the distribution of funds, part of a broader initiative the government has labeled a tripolar mega project for the AI era.

      The largest share will go to Samsung Display, which plans to invest 67 trillion won to enhance OLED production in Asan, producing panels for mobile devices, tablets, extended-reality headsets, vehicles, and humanoid robots.

      Following that, Samsung Electronics has earmarked 56 trillion won for Onyang and Cheonan, transforming both locations into manufacturing bases for high-bandwidth memory, a chip category crucial for Nvidia’s AI accelerators and, consequently, for Samsung's recent AI-driven profits.

      Samsung SDI will add 9 trillion won to develop a mother-line testbed in Cheonan designed to validate next-generation battery technology, including dry-electrode processes, prior to deploying these methods in its global plants.

      Finally, Samsung Electro-Mechanics will invest 8 trillion won in Sejong, where it aims to expand production of the FC-BGA package substrates used in AI server chips, targeting the North American tech sector, while also increasing local employment and research and development.

      Collectively, the four Samsung divisions are betting that Chungcheong can replicate Pyeongtaek and Hwaseong’s success in chip manufacturing by consolidating the supply chain, enabling customers building AI servers to source memory, substrates, batteries, and displays from a single Korean region.

      Samsung Electronics chairman Jay Y. Lee, present at the briefing with President Lee, characterized this investment as vital for the future. He stated, “The success or failure of the AI era depends on the materials and components that power AI, which is directly linked to Samsung’s future,” as reported by the Seoul Economic Daily, adding that Samsung would exert every effort to help Korea become an industrial powerhouse.

      President Lee also spoke at the event, portraying Chungcheong as a prospective hub integrating semiconductors, displays, batteries, and biotechnology, and referred to it as a “Korean Silicon Valley.”

      Samsung’s commitment aligns with a parallel investment from SK hynix, which is planning to invest in a Cheongju chip plant, and Celltrion; collectively, these companies announced a combined investment of 392 trillion won, around $252.5 billion, for the province, as reported by the Korea Times.

      However, not everyone agreed with this framing. Critics have accused the Lee administration of pressuring conglomerates to make these commitments to bolster political support ahead of the ruling Democratic Party’s national convention in August, a claim the president dismissed as “an impossible story,” arguing that Korean firms compete on a global scale and lack room for mere symbolic gestures.

      The Chungcheong pledge follows Samsung’s previous announcement of a comprehensive, decade-long investment plan worth hundreds of trillions of won, with this regional investment being just one aspect.

      Additionally, this announcement comes shortly after Samsung's chip workforce secured a bonus structure based on semiconductor profits, following a standoff with its union that had threatened a strike, highlighting that the same AI demand propelling this investment has also altered labor relations within the company.

      Samsung has not released a construction timeline for the Chungcheong sites, and the government has yet to specify any regulatory support that may accompany this private investment. For a company whose chairman has described this moment as crucial for the country's industrial future, the lack of a confirmed schedule is the only notable gap in an otherwise meticulously planned announcement.