South Korea to invest $518 billion in chip production

Two South Korean technology giants — “Samsung Electronics” and “SK Hynix” — are investing $518 billion in computer chip production in the southwest of the country.

AP News writes about this.

The government and companies want to expand investment beyond the capital Seoul. Companies have chosen the southwestern region because it has few industrial centers and is lagging behind in economic development.

The companies will build two factories each in the city of Gwangju. Experts have suggested several locations for the future firms, including the site of a military air base they want to relocate. The government says the regionʼs strong potential for renewable energy will give the companies an advantage in chip production.

Companies have reported record profits in recent months, driven by soaring investment in data centers and other AI infrastructure, which is driving demand for memory chips. Companies also predict that demand will only grow as the technology spreads to AI-powered robots and autonomous cars.

Government officials announced that the so-called nationwide semiconductor system would be put into operation — production centers in the southeast would expand the production of components and materials for microcircuits, they would be packaged in the city of Chuncheon, and data centers would be built across the country.

What is known about the shortage of RAM?

In 2025, the world experienced a severe shortage of random access memory (DRAM). The reason was the growing needs of data centers and AI. As a result of the shortage, the prices of RAM and PC components increased by 5-10 times.

Tech giant Nanya Technology Corp said in early March this year that the shortage of RAM chips could last until 2028.

Bloomberg, citing its own sources, reported that Sony plans to postpone the presentation of the next PlayStation console to 2028-2029, and suggested that this is due to a shortage of RAM.

For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine, please follow us on X.