As ASML, a global semiconductor exposure equipment supplier, has begun to invest in building a domestic remanufacturing center and R&D center, it has been observed that global semiconductor equipment suppliers are actively expanding their domestic R&D around the same time.

According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on the 15th, as ASML began construction on its new Hwaseong campus, the top four companies that account for more than 60% of the global semiconductor equipment market are all expanding their investments in R&D centers and other areas in Korea, which is expected to be of great help in securing technological competitiveness in the domestic semiconductor industry.

ASML plans to invest more than 240 billion won to build a new exposure equipment remanufacturing center, training center, and experience center, and the groundbreaking ceremony for the new campus will be held on the 16th in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province.

Applied Materials (AMAT) signed an investment agreement with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy in July to establish an R&D center in Gyeonggi Province. It is reported that the final investment scale and location for establishing an R&D center for research and development of next-generation memory semiconductor equipment have not yet been determined.

Lam Research opened the Lam Research Korea Technology Center, a state-of-the-art R&D facility for the development of semiconductor manufacturing equipment and process technology, in April. The R&D center, located in the Yongin Jigok Industrial Complex, is known to be Lam Research’s main R&D base, along with its U.S. and European research centers, with an initial investment of $50 million (approximately KRW 65 billion) in a 30,000-square-meter site.

Tokyo Electron (TEL), a Japanese semiconductor equipment company, also announced an investment in expanding its semiconductor manufacturing equipment R&D center in Korea in November last year. TEL, which announced an investment of 100 billion won for infrastructure expansion, said that it would expand its Dongtan and Balan research bases in Gyeonggi Province and use them to expand the clean room size for equipment development and testing. The research center is expected to complete the expansion in 2023.

According to Gartner research, as of 2021, the market share of semiconductor equipment companies was AMAT 18.6%, ASML 18.1%, Lam Research 15%, and TEL 13.4%.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy is working to improve the foreign investment environment and to strengthen national competitiveness by easing regulations and strengthening incentives to attract investment from cutting-edge companies. Moon Dong-min, Director of the Trade and Investment Office, emphasized that “the ASML Center will greatly contribute to promoting Korea’s strategy to become a semiconductor superpower and strengthening cooperation in the cutting-edge industrial ecosystem between Korea and the Netherlands.”