Won 800tn Semiconductor Mega Cluster, Won 4,700tn AI Korea Blueprint Unveiled — Even Drives US Chip Equipment Stocks

Following the government's announcement the previous day of a semiconductor mega cluster investment plan, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix jointly pledged roughly won 800 trillion in investment. A total of four new memory fabs will be built, two each by Samsung and SK hynix.

The news sent US semiconductor equipment stocks sharply higher. Among S&P 500 constituents, Applied Materials rose about 10%, Lam Research about 8%, and KLA Corporation about 11%. Micron, by contrast, fell as much as 10% early in the session before paring losses.

The ostensible trigger for Micron's early decline was news that US consumers had filed a price-fixing lawsuit against the three major memory makers — Samsung Electronics, SK hynix and Micron. However, the panel argued the lawsuit's logic was weak, since the current price increases stem from surging demand rather than any coordinated supply restriction.

Semiconductor expert Lee Kwang-soo argued that the massive fab investment announcements by Samsung and SK hynix themselves signal confidence in demand at least through 2027-2028, and that this was the very factor that lifted Micron's stock back up. He characterized it as a phenomenon in which Korea's investment announcements are now driving global chip market sentiment.