The blueprint for building the world's largest semiconductor mega cluster is gradually taking shape. With the recent announcement of detailed plans, attention is focused on whether this will be the starting point for the domestic semiconductor industry to leap forward as a global hub.

On the 15th, the government announced the ‘Semiconductor Mega Cluster Creation Plan’ at the semiconductor talent training site.

The semiconductor mega cluster refers to the area in southern Gyeonggi Province where semiconductor companies and related organizations are concentrated, including Pyeongtaek, Hwaseong, Yongin, Icheon, Anseong, Seongnam Pangyo, and Suwon. Currently, the mega cluster has 19 production fabs and 2 research fabs, and by 2047, 13 production fabs and 3 research fabs will be newly built through a total private investment of 622 trillion won. By 2027, three production fabs and two research fabs are expected to be completed.

■ Production inducement effect of 650 trillion won and direct and indirect employment of 3.46 million people expected
The mega cluster is known to have an area of 21.02 million square meters and aims to produce 7.7 million wafers per month by 2030. The government expects a production inducement effect of 650 trillion won, an increase of 204 trillion won in sales for small and medium-sized enterprises and partner companies, and the creation of 3.46 million direct and indirect jobs, including 110,000 direct fab operators.

This figure estimates that approximately 1.93 million direct jobs will be created through increased production of equipment for fabs and raw material manufacturers, while an additional 1.42 million indirect jobs will be created through the revitalization of commercial areas in surrounding areas and the expansion of infrastructure construction for roads, power, and industrial use.

The Yongin National Industrial Complex and general industrial complex, which are currently undergoing new construction, will require an additional 10GW of electricity and 1.108 million tons of water per day, and the supply plan for this was finalized last December.

The government announced that it plans to increase the tax credit rate for investment in cutting-edge industries such as semiconductors to up to 25% and expand the current 22 technologies eligible for semiconductor tax credits (national strategic technologies). In addition, the government will strengthen national support for infrastructure such as roads, water, and electricity, and the semiconductor budget this year will be doubled to 1.3 trillion won compared to 2022.

■ Strengthening the foundry-fabless-small business supply chain

The current supply chain self-sufficiency rate of 30% is leading to exposure to semiconductor supply chain risks. Accordingly, the government is expected to pursue a strategy to foster small and medium-sized enterprises using mega clusters with the goal of increasing the supply chain self-sufficiency rate to 50% by 2030 and increasing the number of companies with 1 trillion won in sales from the current 4 to 10.

It appears that the plan is to push forward with the goal of completing a test bed to support mass production verification in a blank state by 2027, and after a preliminary feasibility study, it will be built within the Yongin cluster with a total project cost of 900 billion won.

It is expected that by creating incentives worth 200 billion won to attract more foreign investment, the country will be able to supplement its lack of technological prowess by attracting R&D centers from global equipment companies.

In addition, the goal is to complete the foundry-fabless value chain, expand the system semiconductor market share to 10% by 2030, and foster 10 fabless companies ranked in the top 50 in global sales.

To this end, we plan to build a new 'verification support center' to verify chip performance developed by fabless companies. In addition, it appears that a fabless support system will be established by doubling the scale of government support for fabless prototype production costs, establishing a new track for government support for ultra-fine processes to support the development of advanced chips, and increasing the number of times foundry companies open their prototype production lines.

In terms of financial support, we plan to expand policy financing that provides preferential support for loans and guarantees to a total of KRW 24 trillion over three years and provide preferential interest rates of up to 1.3%p.

■ Strategy for securing next-generation semiconductor super-gap technology

The government announced that it will promote the 'K-Cloud Project' to develop and demonstrate the world's best low-power, high-performance domestic AI semiconductors.

The Ministry of Science and ICT has set a goal of gradually advancing domestic AI semiconductors (NPU → PIM → ultra-low-power PIM) by 2030. It plans to apply this to data centers to verify the technology and performance of AI semiconductors, and the verified technologies will be given priority for application in areas closely related to people's lives, such as intelligent traffic control, intelligent CCTV, and AI digital textbooks.

The goal is to complete a high-level technology ecosystem by securing core cloud data center HW/SW technologies specialized in advanced domestic AI semiconductors. A preliminary feasibility study for the development of 'K-Cloud' technology worth approximately 1 trillion won is also underway.

The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to achieve the following goals: △Reducing AI service power consumption to 1/10th of the world's best GPUs and △Doubling AI learning efficiency.

In addition, there are plans to develop Suwon, which is home to Sungkyunkwan University, Kyunghee University, Ajou University, and the Korea Institute of Nanotechnology, a specialized compound semiconductor research infrastructure, into a compound semiconductor technology hub. He stated that he would establish an organic collaboration system with regional clusters such as Daejeon, Gwangju, Busan, and Pohang centered on the mega cluster, and support the entire R&D-verification-analysis cycle to create results centered on four strategic fields: space and defense, communications, power, and sensors.

In addition, the KAIST Pyeongtaek Campus will be established by 2029 and the KAIST Next-Generation Design Research Center and Device Research Center will be built. In addition, the national semiconductor research infrastructure scattered across the country will be linked and integrated online (MoaFab service) and the infrastructure service will be continuously improved through collaboration with private fabs.