A visit to Samsung’s massive new semiconductor hub
Samsung is expanding its semiconductor manufacturing complex in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, to meet the surging demand for AI-related memory chips. The site is a massive operation involving thousands of workers and advanced fabrication facilities.
Why it matters
The expansion reflects the global strategic importance of semiconductor manufacturing in supporting the rapid growth of generative AI technologies.
At the world’s biggest chipmaking complex, Samsung is building the fabs it needs for the AI memory boom.
Generative AI models run on powerful chips known as GPUs, which depend on stacks of specialized memory chips packaged with the processor. To meet growing demand for memory, Samsung is building a massive new semiconductor manufacturing complex in Pyeongtaek, South Korea. Three fabs already operate around the clock, and a fourth is coming online. Construction of a fifth was halted during a drop in demand for memory chips in 2024 but restarted when the AI boom sent demand soaring.
It’s just before noon on a Monday, and construction workers are pouring out of Samsung’s fabs in Pyeongtaek, a farming city south of Seoul where rice paddies abut a sprawling chipmaking complex. Thousands of workers, dressed head to toe in black with sky-blue vests, take off helmets bearing their names and fab numbers.
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