South Korea has announced a 33 trillion won (A$36.42 billion) support package for its semiconductor industry, up a quarter from the 26 trillion won package revealed last year.
This comes after United States President Donald Trump said he would be announcing a tariff on semiconductors soon after exempting them from his previous round of tariffs last week.
In a post to Truth Social, Trump said no one was getting “off the hook” from the tariffs.
“We are taking a look at Semiconductors and the WHOLE ELECTRONICS SUPPLY CHAIN in the upcoming National Security Tariff Investigations,” he said.
As part of the funding support measures, the government will subsidise the construction of underground power transmission lines to semicondutor clusters and increase the funding ratio for infrastructure in advanced industrial complexes by 50%.
A total of 20 trillion won of low-interest semiconductor companies will be offered from 2025 to 2027. This is an increase from the current 17 trillion won.
South Korea have also introduced other measures like training and research programs and domestic masters and doctoral programs as well as global joint research programs for foreign talent.
South Korea is the world’s fourth largest economy and home to some of the world’s top memory chip makers. This includes Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.
In 2024, the county's exports of semiconductors were US$141.9 billion, accounting for 21% of their total. Shipments to China and the U.S.a were US$46.6 billion and US$10.7 billion respectively.
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