With the demand for AI memory skyrocketing, the map of the Korean semiconductor industry is being redrawn. While the metropolitan-centered semiconductor belt stretching from Giheung and Hwaseong to Pyeongtaek and Yongin has been the nation's main production axis, the Honam region is expected to emerge as a new strategic hub in the future.

Samsung and SK Hynix announced plans for astronomical domestic investments through the 'National Briefing on the Three Major Mega Projects for Korea's Great Leap Forward' on the 29th.

The common denominator of the mid-to-long-term investment plans announced by Samsung and SK Hynix is the new memory semiconductor cluster in the Honam region, or more broadly, the Southwest region.

Based on the government's announcement, a total of four memory fabs, including two from Samsung and two from SK, are scheduled to be built in Gwangju, South Jeolla Province, with the combined investment of both companies reaching 800 trillion won.

The most notable figures in this announcement are Samsung's 2,655 trillion won and SK Hynix's 1,100 trillion won.

However, it is difficult to simply compare the two amounts.

Samsung's 2,655 trillion won represents the company's mid-to-long-term domestic investment scale, combining 2,030 trillion won in investment in semiconductor clusters in the metropolitan area, including Pyeongtaek and Yongin, and 625 trillion won in investment in regional areas such as Honam, Chungcheong, and Yeongnam.

On the other hand, SK Hynix's 1,100 trillion won is an amount focused on investing in memory production bases connecting Yongin, Cheongju, and the Southwest region.

Among these, if we look only at investments related to the Honam region, Samsung’s 400 trillion won investment in semiconductors in Honam and SK Hynix’s 400 trillion won investment in the Southwest region are intertwined, and this connects to the government’s announced plan for an 800 trillion won Honam memory fab.

Samsung plans to invest a total of 425 trillion won in Honam.

Of this, 400 trillion won will be invested in the construction of a new semiconductor fab in Gwangju.

Samsung proposed Gwangju as the next candidate site for a semiconductor cluster, following Giheung/Hwaseong, Pyeongtaek, and Yongin.

This decision stems from the judgment that the establishment of the next cluster must be brought forward compared to the existing plan in order to respond early to the explosively increasing demand for semiconductors.

Gwangju was mentioned as a region expected to receive incentive support in areas such as electricity and water supply, workforce securing and training, and settlement conditions.

Samsung believes that if the Gwangju semiconductor cluster is established, it will become one of the two major core pillars leading the domestic semiconductor industry, alongside the Seoul metropolitan area.

Samsung's investment in the Honam region is not limited to semiconductor fabs.

In Gwangju, a digital twin-based innovation hub for smart home appliances and a production facility for heat pumps and air conditioners for AI data centers are being pursued together.

A consortium led by Samsung SDS plans to build the Sovereign AI Data Center in Haenam Solasido.

In addition, Samsung C&T is pursuing the construction of solar power generation facilities, nuclear-based hydrogen production facilities, and a green hydrogen research and development demonstration complex in the Honam region.

Samsung Electronics' global state-of-the-art logistics center is also planned for Gochang, Jeonbuk.

It is essentially a vision for a comprehensive industrial ecosystem that integrates semiconductor production, AI infrastructure, future energy, and logistics within a single region.

SK Hynix is also preparing the Southwest region as a next-generation memory production base.

The company has prepared a mid-to-long-term investment strategy worth a total of 1,100 trillion won, including 600 trillion won in Yongin, 100 trillion won in Cheongju, and 400 trillion won in the Southwest region.

The Yongin Cluster was originally scheduled for completion in 2045, but aims to complete the construction of the fourth fab by 2033, bringing the schedule forward by 12 years.

Approximately 100 trillion won will be invested in Cheongju to strengthen advanced packaging capabilities, including new NAND fabs, production equipment, and HBM back-end processes.

Adding a new hub in the southwestern region to this, an AI memory production bell connecting Yongin, Cheongju, and the southwestern regionThe plan is to build a system.

The reason SK Hynix is focusing on the Southwest region is the surge in demand for AI memory.

As the demand for large-scale AI model training and inference expands, the demand for high-performance memory semiconductors is growing rapidly, and securing production capabilities for next-generation memory, including HBM, has emerged as a key challenge for corporate competitiveness.

SK Hynix explained that securing a large site and stable basic infrastructure, such as power and water, is essential for establishing a large-scale semiconductor production base.

The southwestern region is cited as an area where the potential to secure large-scale sites aligns with the government and local authorities' push to build infrastructure. However, the specific location has not yet been finalized, and consultations with relevant agencies and procedures remain.

This investment could be a significant turning point for the Honam economy as well.

A semiconductor fab is not just a single factory, but a large industrial platform where equipment, materials, components, construction, plants, power, water, logistics, and research and development personnel converge.

If investments by Samsung and SK Hynix begin in earnest, the region's industrial structure is likely to shift from its existing manufacturing and energy-centric model to a high-value-added structure combining AI semiconductors, data centers, carbon-free energy, and advanced logistics.

In particular, if the semiconductor production base, which has been concentrated in the Seoul metropolitan area, expands to the Honam region, it is expected to have a significant symbolic effect on balanced regional development.

However, it is not all rosy.

The investment amounts from both companies are cumulative and executed in stages over several years, rather than being funds injected all at once in a short period.

SK Hynix's investment in the Southwest region still has details regarding the site and procedures remaining, and Samsung's Gwangju cluster also requires the support of core infrastructure such as electricity, water, manpower, and residential conditions.

As semiconductor fabs require a long time from groundbreaking to operation, government and local government support for licensing, infrastructure, and talent development is expected to determine the actual speed.

Nevertheless, the significance of this announcement is clear.

The point is that the Korean semiconductor industry is changing its spatial strategy to respond to the surge in demand in the AI era.

If the existing clusters centered on the Seoul metropolitan area were the first act of Korea's semiconductor growth, investment in the Honam region could be the starting point of a new second act.

As Samsung and SK Hynix each allocate 400 trillion won in semiconductor investments to the Honam and Southwest regions, Honam is no longer a peripheral industrial zone Rather, it is rising as a core pillar of the national AI semiconductor strategy.

The key is how quickly and stably the announced figures can be translated into actual factories, infrastructure, jobs, and industrial ecosystems.

The success or failure of the Honam semiconductor cluster is expected to serve as a crucial test case for gauging whether Korea can maintain its leading position in AI memory.