South Korea on Tuesday, April 15, announced a 33 trillion won ($23.25 billion) support package for its vital semiconductor industry, as high levels of tariff uncertainty from the United States threaten companies based in the Asian country.
Seoul made the mentioned decision on financial support after US President Donald Trump reportedly said he would announce a tariff rate on imported semiconductors. It is worth mentioning that last week, the specified products were exempted from United States reciprocal levies.
According to information contained in a press release published by the South Korean finance ministry, the financial support announced on Tuesday for the semiconductor industry was about a quarter higher than the amount allocated for similar purposes last year.
The Asian country government will subsidize the construction of underground power transmission lines for semiconductor clusters. There are also plans to increase the funding ratio for infrastructure in advanced industrial complexes from 30% to 50%.
Between 2025 and 2027, South Korean semiconductor companies will be offered low-interest loans worth 20 trillion won.
Seoul also has plans to include introducing training and research programs for domestic master’s and doctoral students, and global joint research programs for foreign talent.
Last year, the financial volume of semiconductor exports from South Korea was $141.9 billion. This figure is equivalent to just over 20% of the total exports of the Asian country in 2024, which amounted to $683.6 billion.
As we have reported earlier, South Korea Plans to Secure 10,000 GPUs for National AI Computing Centre.
