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Samsung, SK Hynix Lead KRW 392 Trillion Investment in South Korea's Chungcheong Region

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Samsung, SK Hynix Lead KRW 392 Trillion Investment in South Korea's Chungcheong Region

Samsung Electronics (KRX:005930), SK Hynix (KRX:000660) and Celltrion (KRX:068270) have pledged a combined 392 trillion won ($254 billion) to build a tech and biotech hub in South Korea's Chungcheong region.

South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced the plans at a Thursday briefing held at Samsung Display's Asan campus.

The event, which coincided with the first glass substrate delivery for Samsung Display's 8.6-generation OLED production line, follows the government's mega-projects briefing last week, where the ministry also announced a 550 trillion won project in cooperation with the government, Samsung, SK Hynix and Naver (KRX:035420).

At the latest event, Samsung outlined a 140 trillion-won plan to transform Chungcheong into "a hub for materials and components."

Through Samsung Display, the group plans to expand high-value-added OLED lines in Asan for smartphones, IT devices, XR, automotive and humanoid and wearable applications, according to a separate press release from Samsung.

The company will also build an HBM manufacturing base with five fab lines in Onyang, plus expanded facilities in Cheonan.

Samsung expects the plan to create 250,000 jobs.

Separately, SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-Jung said the company will invest a total of 100 trillion won in Cheongju, of which 80 trillion won will be spent on M17 NAND production and 20 trillion won for P&T7 advanced packaging.

P&T7 is targeted for completion by the end of 2027, while M17 construction is expected to begin next year, with operations slated to start in the first half of 2029.

Kwak cited an increasing demand for enterprise SSDs and NAND flash memory tied to the adoption of AI services as the reason for the expansion.

SK Group separately plans to build a 1-gigawatt AI data center in the Chungcheong region as part of a push to build a total of 15 GW of AI data center capacity across the country.

Meanwhile, biopharmaceutical company Celltrion (KRX:068270) will also invest 2 trillion won in biopharmaceutical production facilities within Chungcheong, according to the ministry.

The planned facility will manufacture pre-filled syringes, with plans to boost production capacity by 50 million syringes, raising Celltrion's total annual capacity in the region to 70 million syringes, Korea JoongAng Daily reported, citing the event.

The ministry also hinted that other companies have earmarked about 150 trillion won in the region.

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