South Korea bets $880bn on chips and AI

韩国押注8.8万亿韩元于芯片与人工智能

World Business Report

2026-06-29

8 分钟
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South Korea has announced plans to pump in least $880bn to strengthen its semiconductor industry and artificial intelligence capabilities in the coming years. And Comcast prepares to spin off NBCUniversal and Sky in a major media shake-up.
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  • South Korea goes all in on AI.

  • It's World Business Express from the BBC World Service, IMBC Atibayo.

  • South Korea is investing at least $880 billion to cement its position at the heart of a global chip industry.

  • And Comcast prepares to split off NBCUniversal and Sky in a major media shake-up.

  • So South Korea is planning one of the world's biggest technology investment drives, with companies including Samsung

  • and SK Hynix expected to spend up to US$880 billion over the next decade on AI, semiconductors and data centers.

  • President Lee Jae-myung says the country has no time to lose.

  • Speed is our only way forward.

  • We must establish the core building blocks of artificial intelligence faster than any other country.

  • Physical AI and AI data centers are the three pillars of our next great leap forward.

  • We need to bring these together and mobilize the combined capabilities of both government

  • and the private sector to build a Korean-style AI ecosystem with speed.

  • To keep pace with explosively growing semiconductor demand, we must rapidly complete

  • the production hubs currently underway and through large-scale new investments in the southwestern region

  • and elsewhere, we must secure overwhelming supply capacity, well in advance.

  • LRI spoke to the BBC's Jake Wan from Seoul.

  • This is the biggest, probably a single investment South Korea has ever put out there.

  • And what they're saying is that this is going to put South Korea ahead of its competitions

  • when it comes to what they call the chip war.

  • Half of it is going to go to making new chip making factories.