Electronics giant Samsung says it plans to invest around 300tn won over 20 years in the South Korean government's push to develop a mega semiconductor hub in the country.Samsung is the world's biggest maker of memory chips, smartphones and TVs.
"The mega cluster will be the key base of our semiconductor ecosystem," South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and EnergyIt said it planned to secure around 550tn won in private-sector investment and "leap forward as a leading country in the middle of fierce global competition over advanced industries".
"It wants to emulate to some degree Taiwan's clustering effect, where the trifecta of science parks... form a massive cluster that has attracted numerous other companies, both upstream and downstream in the supply chain," he said. In October, Washington announced that it would require licences for companies exporting chips to China using US tools or software, no matter where they are made in the world.Around the same time, South Korea's trade ministry raised concerns over the US policy on semiconductors.
Who'd have thought a company would invest in it's own countries manufacturing..