South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Tuesday that the government will invest 9.4 trillion won ($6.94 billion) in artificial intelligence (AI) by 2027 in a bid to maintain its global dominance in semiconductor chips.

South Korea Strives to Catch up With Semiconductor Supply Chain Leaders Worldwide

South Korea is trying to keep up with countries like Japan, China, and the United States, all of which are providing huge policy support to strengthen their semiconductor supply chains. According to Reuters, the announcement comes with a separate 1.4 trillion won ($1.03 billion) fund to encourage AI semiconductor companies.

The nation's export-driven economy relies heavily on semiconductors. Chip exports hit a 21-month high in March, totaling $11.7 billion, or around 20% of all exports sent by South Korea.

In a meeting with policymakers and chip industry executives on Tuesday, Yoon said that the present semiconductor rivalry is similar to "an industrial war and an all-out war between nations."

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South Korea Aims to Increase AI Chip Research and Development Investment

The South Korean government has announced its intention to greatly increase spending on research and development on AI chips, including next-generation high-bandwidth memory chips and artificial neural processing units (NPUs), by allocating investments and a fund.

Beyond current models, South Korean authorities will push for the creation of next-gen safety technologies and artificial general intelligence (AGI).

According to The Korean Times, Yoon wants South Korea to take a 10% share of the worldwide system semiconductor market by 2030 and be among the top three nations in AI technology, including chips.

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