It is expected that the world's largest semiconductor mega cluster will be built by linking more than 150 domestic and foreign small and medium-sized enterprises and Pangyo fabless companies in the metropolitan semiconductor memory manufacturing complex.

President Yoon Seok-yeol presided over the 14th Emergency Economic and Livelihood Meeting at Yeongbingwan on the morning of the 15th. At the meeting, he announced that he would build the world’s largest new ‘Advanced System Semiconductor Cluster’ in the metropolitan area based on large-scale new private investment amounting to 300 trillion won.

This mega cluster, in which large-scale private new investment is being made in the system semiconductor sector in the national advanced industry fostering strategy, was selected as a candidate site for the national industrial complex in Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do. It was announced that a total investment of 300 trillion won will be invested by 2042, and plans are in place to build five advanced semiconductor foundries and attract up to 150 semiconductor companies, including small and medium-sized enterprises and fabless companies.

The new cluster, which boasts the world's largest scale based on a single complex, is expected to function as an integrated cluster that links foundry-memory-fabless-small and medium-sized businesses into a single region by linking with the existing memory production complexes in Giheung, Hwaseong, Pyeongtaek, and Yongin.

As we must lead next-generation technology, securing excellent talent and basic technologies is of utmost importance. Accordingly, the government announced that it will support the development of next-generation semiconductor large-scale core technologies such as electricity, vehicles, and AI with 3.2 trillion won and invest 5-8 billion won in supporting demand-linked projects with purchase conditions between large companies and fabless companies.

The goal is to foster 150,000 semiconductor talents, including field talent, master's and doctoral level talents, and regional talents, by 2031, and announced a plan to invest 100 billion won this year alone in expanding facility investment tax credits and supporting infrastructure.

A strategy to foster the industry across the ecosystem from design to manufacturing and post-processing has also been established. A policy has been established to support advanced semiconductor fabless in promising fields such as power and AI and foster 10 star fabless companies by 2035. The plan is to significantly expand the opening of the 4nm process for AI semiconductors and legacy processes for automotive and home appliance semiconductors, and to intensively support prototype production and mass production of excellent fabless companies to grow them into fabless companies with sales of 1 trillion won.

In addition, as the importance of advanced packaging is gradually increasing, it was reported that a total of 24 trillion won in private investment will be sought to build a post-processing base. To this end, the government plans to increase competitiveness through government technology development support worth 360 billion won.

As global trade becomes more bloc-based, technological cooperation and export support to address supply chain issues are also expected to expand. The government plans to promote a full-cycle joint R&D pilot project from materials and equipment to manufacturing and finished products to expand technological cooperation linking domestic manufacturing capabilities with the U.S. small business and design capabilities, and will establish a cooperation center in Silicon Valley in the U.S. to support local demand matching, verification, and marketing.

△While major domestic companies such as Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motors, SK, and LG have mentioned that they will announce corporate strategies for fostering cutting-edge industries, the government plans to focus on policy support such as △tax cuts, △infrastructure support, and △deregulation.
President Yoon Seok-yeol emphasized, “Speed is important, and the government will make every effort to ensure that the development of the national high-tech industrial complex announced today can proceed quickly,” adding, “I hope that the bill to expand tax credits for investment in national high-tech industrial facilities (tax credits of up to 25-35%) submitted by the government to the National Assembly will be passed at a rapid pace.”

Meanwhile, in addition to the semiconductor mega cluster being built in the metropolitan area, cutting-edge industrial complexes will be built in 14 regional national industrial complex candidate sites, and companies are expected to invest a total of 60 trillion won in cutting-edge industries in regions outside the metropolitan area over the next 10 years.

The 14 national high-tech industrial complexes are in the Chungcheong region: Daejeon (nano, semiconductors, aerospace), Cheonan (future mobility, semiconductors), Cheongju (railway), Hongseong (hydrogen, future cars, secondary batteries, etc.), and in the Honam region: Gwangju (future car core parts), Goheung (space launch vehicle), and Iksan (space launch vehicle).In the Yeongnam region, the following were selected as candidate sites: San (food tech), Wanju (hydrogen storage and utilization manufacturing), Changwon (defense, nuclear power), Daegu (future automobiles and robots), Andong (biopharmaceuticals), Gyeongju (small modular nuclear power plant), Uljin (hydrogen utilizing nuclear power plants), and Gangneung (natural product bio) in the Gangwon region.