Samsung Electronics led all global chipmakers in total investment last year, according to data released Wednesday by corporate research firm CEO Score. Samsung's combined capital expenditure of 52.15 trillion won (about $34.3 billion) and research and development spending of 37.74 trillion won put its total at 89.89 trillion won — ahead of TSMC at 69.41 trillion won, Intel at 40.45 trillion won, SK Hynix at 35.05 trillion won and Nvidia at 34.94 trillion won among the world's top 10 semiconductor companies. Samsung is also expected to announce plans as early as this month to build a new regional semiconductor factory, with Gwangju and the broader Honam region under consideration as candidate sites. Industry watchers also expect SK Hynix to expand its facilities in the Honam and Chungcheong regions.
That Samsung and SK Hynix ranked first and fourth among the world's top 10 chipmakers by investment is a clear answer to what has driven South Korea's remarkable manufacturing resurgence. Samsung's commitment is particularly striking: even as its operating profit fell 85 percent year-on-year to 6.57 trillion won in 2023 amid a severe industry downturn, the company still deployed 88.87 trillion won in investment — 13.5 times that profit figure. Without the sustained investment of these two chipmakers through the global industry's harshest stretch, South Korea's economy would look very different today. The thought of Korean exports and stock markets stripped of semiconductors is sobering.
The forward-looking investments of Korean companies have ushered in a broad revival across manufacturing and advanced industries, but the road ahead offers little room for complacency. Difficult external conditions aside, there are pressing domestic challenges to address. The planned semiconductor investment and facility expansion centered on the Honam and Chungcheong regions is partly about securing new production bases beyond Pyeongtaek and Yongin in Gyeonggi Province and building regional industrial ecosystems — but it also carries significant weight as a corporate response to the Lee Jae-myung administration's regional balance policy. If political considerations of geographic distribution displace rigorous economic and efficiency criteria as the basis for investment decisions, global competitiveness could erode with alarming speed.
The message Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang left during his recent visit to South Korea was unmistakable: he intends to anchor Korea's semiconductor and AI industries firmly within Nvidia's ecosystem. Meanwhile, the planned US listings of OpenAI and Anthropic are intensifying the global race for AI leadership. South Korea's goals must be squarely focused on strengthening manufacturing capabilities, widening the competitive gap in semiconductors and securing AI sovereignty. Investment on this scale cannot be sustained by corporate effort alone. The government must provide support through deregulation, talent development and infrastructure. Labor, too, must pursue a mature model of cooperation that accounts for companies' long-term competitiveness and investment needs. Investment for future growth is a national imperative from which no one is exempt — and it demands the concerted backing of government, the political establishment, labor and civil society alike.
