Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix Shares Slide on Seoul’s $1.3 Trillion AI Chip Initiative

Shares of the two leading South Korean memory makers fell Monday after the government disclosed broad artificial intelligence and semiconductor initiatives projected to draw hundreds of billions of dollars in spending over the next decade.

South Korea announces national semiconductor ecosystem project. President Lee Jae Myung outlined measures to reinforce the nation’s chip dominance and enlarge its AI infrastructure via major capital outlays and fresh production lines. Officials indicated the two memory producers will each construct a pair of new fabrication facilities in the southwest region under an 800 trillion won program valued at $518 billion. Trade minister Jung-Kwan Kim said the country must accelerate faster than competitors to lock in technologies that support the AI era.

The disclosure also orders accelerated capacity growth by compressing the interval between licensing and actual building.

Stock reaction follows prior investment report. Samsung Electronics shares declined 4.8 percent while SK Hynix shares gave up early losses approaching 6 percent to finish 1.6 percent lower. The declines arrived one day after the Maeil Business Newspaper disclosed that Samsung Group intends to commit 1,000 trillion won across the coming ten years, an amount equal to $646 billion. That account described outlays for chip plants, AI data centers, advanced packaging, batteries and displays.

The publication broke down roughly 300 trillion won earmarked for additional fabs in southwestern South Korea, 360 trillion won for the Yongin semiconductor cluster and over 350 trillion won for AI data centers. It left unclear whether those sums overlap.

Companies positioned as AI memory leaders. The pair have become pivotal suppliers amid the artificial intelligence surge. High-bandwidth memory chip demand continues to exceed available supply as cloud operators and tech groups scale up AI systems. SK Hynix remains the top vendor of leading HBM chips to Nvidia, while Samsung Electronics has poured resources into closing the technological distance with its local competitor.

Taken together, the moves reflect an intensified drive to preserve South Korea’s advantage in the worldwide semiconductor contest.