Samsung Electronics to Invest $230 Bln Through 2042 in South Korea Chipmaking Base

A Samsung sign is displayed, during the GSMA's 2023 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain March 1, 2023. (Reuters)
A Samsung sign is displayed, during the GSMA's 2023 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain March 1, 2023. (Reuters)
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Samsung Electronics to Invest $230 Bln Through 2042 in South Korea Chipmaking Base

A Samsung sign is displayed, during the GSMA's 2023 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain March 1, 2023. (Reuters)
A Samsung sign is displayed, during the GSMA's 2023 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain March 1, 2023. (Reuters)

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics expects to invest $230 billion over the next 20 years to develop what the country's government called the world's largest chip-making base, in line with efforts to boost the national chip industry.

Samsung's around 300 trillion won project is part of a 550 trillion won private-sector investment plan unveiled by the government on Wednesday. Seoul's strategy aims to expand tax breaks and support to raise competitiveness of high-tech sectors including those involving chips, displays and batteries.

The plans come as other countries introduce steps to bolster domestic chip industries, including the United States which last month released details of its CHIPS Act, offering billions of dollars in subsidies for chipmakers that invest in the country.

"The economic battlefield, which recently began with chips, has expanded ... countries are providing large-scale subsidies and tax support," said President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday.

"(We) must support private investments to ensure further growth ... the government must provide location, R&D, manpower, and tax support."

Samsung's manufacturing additions will include five chip factories and attract up to 150 materials, parts and equipment makers, fabless chipmakers and semiconductor research-and-development organizations near Seoul, the industry ministry said in a statement.

In addition to private-sector investment, the government will budget 25 trillion won or more over five years for R&D in strategic technologies such as artificial intelligence. It will provide about 360 billion won to develop chip packaging, and about 100 billion won in electricity and water infrastructure this year for industrial complexes.

In January, the government proposed raising the tax deduction rate for facility investments in chips and other strategic technologies from 8% to 15% for large corporations.

Separately, Samsung Electronics, unit Samsung Display, affiliates Samsung SDI and Samsung Electro-Mechanics said they plan to invest 60.1 trillion won in the next 10 years in regions outside the Seoul metropolitan area to develop chip packaging, displays and battery technology.

South Korea, home to the world's two biggest memory chip makers, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix Inc, is seeking to improve supply-chain stability to become a major player in the non-memory chip field, currently dominated by chipmakers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd and Intel Corp.



China's Baidu Launches Two New AI Models as Industry Competition Heats Up

People walk past a Baidu logo outside the company headquarters in Beijing on February 2, 2024. (AFP)
People walk past a Baidu logo outside the company headquarters in Beijing on February 2, 2024. (AFP)
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China's Baidu Launches Two New AI Models as Industry Competition Heats Up

People walk past a Baidu logo outside the company headquarters in Beijing on February 2, 2024. (AFP)
People walk past a Baidu logo outside the company headquarters in Beijing on February 2, 2024. (AFP)

China's Baidu said on Sunday it has launched two new artificial intelligence models, including a new reasoning-focused model that it said rivalled DeepSeek's model, as it vies to stand out in a fiercely competitive AI race.

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek's roll-out of AI models which it says is on par with, or even better than, industry-leading models in the United States at a fraction of the cost, has roiled the industry and re-energized the global AI race.

"ERNIE X1 delivers performance on par with DeepSeek R1 at only half the price," Baidu said of one of the new models.

The X1 has "stronger understanding, planning, reflection, and evolution capabilities," Baidu said, adding that it is the first deep thinking model that uses tools autonomously.

Baidu said its latest foundation model ERNIE 4.5 has "excellent multimodal understanding ability. It has more advanced language ability, and its understanding, generation, logic, and memory abilities are comprehensively improved."

It also has "high EQ", and it is easy to understand network memes and satirical cartoons, Baidu said.

One of China's earliest tech giants to launch a ChatGPT-style chatbot, Baidu has struggled to gain widespread adoption for its Ernie large language model, despite claiming performance comparable to OpenAI's GPT-4, amid fierce competition.

Multimodal AI systems are capable of processing and integrating various types of data including text, video, images and audio, and can convert content across these formats.