Core Investment Plan

At the 'Korea Great Leap Forward: Three Mega Project' briefing held at the presidential office on June 29, 2026, SK Group unveiled a mid- to long-term investment plan totaling 2,100 trillion won in artificial intelligence and semiconductors. Of this, 1,000 trillion won will go toward building AI data centers and 1,100 trillion won toward expanding semiconductor production capacity. Chairman Choi Tae-won of SK Group personally presented the investment vision, with the core plan centered on upgrading the existing production bases linking Yongin and Cheongju while establishing a new memory production base in the southwestern region. The AI data centers will be built sequentially across the country, led by SK Telecom with participation from affiliated companies. At the same briefing, Samsung Electronics also announced its own semiconductor investment plans for the southwestern region, meaning the two groups' new production base plans now overlap in the same area.

Yongin and Cheongju Production Belt to Be Completed Early

The Yongin cluster's completion date, originally set for 2045, will be moved up by 12 years, with the fourth and final fab now targeted for completion by 2033. To achieve this, 600 trillion won will be invested in stages to sequentially expand existing production facilities and equipment, raising memory production capacity. In Cheongju, 100 trillion won will be invested to build a new fab for increased NAND flash production, along with a new advanced packaging line handling back-end processes for high-bandwidth memory. Both regions are being expanded to meet growing demand for AI memory, and the accelerated completion timeline reflects the goal of securing production capacity early amid global memory competition.

New 400 Trillion Won Southwestern Cluster

The southwestern region, including Gwangju Metropolitan City, has been selected as the next-generation production base. A total of 400 trillion won will be invested there in stages to build two mega-fabs covering the full front-end memory production process. Securing a large site with adequate infrastructure for power, water, and transportation was identified as the first priority, with site acquisition, fab construction, and equipment installation to proceed in phases. The southwestern cluster is planned as a new production base to meet rising global memory demand, and together with the Yongin-Cheongju production belt, it will form one pillar of the domestic memory semiconductor supply chain.

Site and Timeline Still Undetermined

The specific site, groundbreaking schedule, and detailed investment scale for the southwestern cluster had not been finalized as of this report. The timing of investment execution may vary depending on site acquisition, permitting, and infrastructure conditions such as power and water supply, with the final location to be decided through consultation between the government and local authorities. SK has set a goal of completing the reorganization of its semiconductor production belt by 2033, in parallel with the nationwide buildout of AI data centers.