GoKawiilSouth Korean President Lee Jae-myung announced a ₩1,350 trillion (roughly $880 billion) 10-year public-private plan for semiconductors, AI data centers, and robotics on June 29. At the televised address in Seoul, he was flanked by Samsung Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won.
The ₩1,350 trillion total combines a $520 billion semiconductor program with AI data center and robotics spending, most of it corporate capital expenditure rather than direct state funding. Samsung's Device Solutions division booked ₩53.7 trillion in first-quarter operating profit and expects 2026 to out-earn its entire prior semiconductor history. Samsung and SK hynix have pulled fab completion dates forward by as much as 12 years, while the transmission lines and water pipelines that those fabs depend on remain years behind.
Gigawatts of power deficit
The Yongin Semiconductor National Industrial Complex, the Samsung and SK hynix megacluster in Gyeonggi Province, is estimated to require 15 to 16 GW at full operation, close to 25% of total Seoul-metropolitan power demand, against local supply of about 1.9 GW, according to a National Assembly Research Service report. As of a January briefing, however, about 6 GW of the roughly 15 GW the complex needs had no finalized supply plan, with Samsung reportedly needing 9 GW (6 GW secured) and SK hynix 6 GW (3 GW secured).
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Power in South Korea is generated on the coasts, from nuclear and liquefied natural gas (LNG) on the east coast and renewables in the southwestern Honam region, while the fabs sit inland, near Seoul. Closing that distance falls to state utility KEPCO, which is pursuing a ₩37 trillion, roughly 1,153-km 345 kV network to move east-coast and Honam power to Yongin, targeted for 2036. KEPCO's track record on long-distance lines is problematic, though; its losses from delays on the Bukdangjin-Sintangjeong line reached ₩1.17 trillion ($810 million), and that single project took 22 years to complete, with site selection alone running past a decade.
The east-coast link that's supposed to carry about 8 GW toward the capital region has its own history of local opposition, too. The Donghaean-Dongseoul high-voltage direct current line, a 280-km run from Uljin to Hanam requiring 436 towers, has faced repeated delays, and Hanam's 2024 rejection of a KEPCO substation expansion threatened the plan outright. Meanwhile, SK hynix pulled the completion of its fourth Yongin fab forward by 12 years, from 2045 to 2033, as announced in the recent $712.5 billion SK hynix commitment, meaning fabs are arriving faster than the power lines that feed them.
KEPCO and the government plan six LNG plants inside the Yongin complex, starting at about 3 GW and scaling toward 10 GW, to bridge the supply gap until the transmission network is finished. Both Samsung and SK hynix hold RE100 commitments to reach 100% renewable electricity by 2050, and the ruling Democratic Party's own carbon-neutrality committee has demanded the LNG plan be cancelled.
Water shortages
Aside from power, a large memory fab consumes upwards of 100,000 tons of water per day, and the Yongin national complex is projected to need around 800,000 tons per day once fully built. The plan to supply this runs in phases: roughly 200,000 tons per day from about 2031, drawn from Paldang Dam surplus and treated wastewater, followed by new intake facilities and pipelines to reach 600,000 tons per day by 2034. However, SK hynix's accelerated fourth fab is now due in 2033, a year before the integrated pipeline that's being built to serve it.
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