Amkor Technology

Stories

South Korea directs $880 billion private buildout into chips and AI data centers

Broke ground on a 3 trillion won packaging plant expansion in Gwangju on October 19, 2026

South Korea's chip buildout is producing contracts on several fronts. On November 2, Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan said the three mega projects total 1,600 trillion won, about 60% of GDP in the year work starts, and promised faster permits to bring fab start-ups forward by more than two years. Samsung and SK Hynix have signed long-term memory supply deals with customers, and OpenAI's Sam Altman visited Seoul to talk with SK Group about HBM and data centers.

Updated Nov 2

Amkor and NVIDIA expand AI chip packaging partnership with South Korea agreement

Money Moves

Building out packaging capacity in Arizona and South Korea under multi-year NVIDIA agreements Amkor totals at $3 billion

AI chips aren't finished at the foundry. They are mounted with memory onto a base called an interposer and tested in a back-end step, advanced packaging, where demand has outrun supply. NVIDIA committed $1.3 billion to Amkor on October 21 for South Korea capacity, which Amkor says brings its multi-year NVIDIA agreements in Arizona and South Korea to $3 billion. The two disclosed amounts, $1.5 billion in July and $1.3 billion this week, add up to $2.8 billion.

Updated Oct 22