South Korea and the US drop billions on chip investments as AI fuels techy nationalism

Stockin’ up the pantry… with lotsa chips. AI’s rise has put semiconductor demand into warp speed as nations race to become top producers. Last week, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said his country would invest $7B into its AI and chip tech by 2027. FYI: South Korea is the world’s No. 2 chip producer after Taiwan, thanks to cos like Samsung and Hynix. Last month its chip exports hit their highest level in nearly two years, totaling $11.7B — a fifth of all its exports. Now South Korea plans to use the $7B cash infusion to develop AI products like next-gen high-speed memory chips.

• K-drama: Yoon said it’s an “all-out” war between chipmaking nations, and he wants South Korea “to conquer the future AI chip market."

• Seoul searching: The $$ injection could bring Korea closer to its goal of owning 10% of global logic-chip production by 2030, up from 3% today.

All in… to win the chip-supremacy pot. Last week, President Biden said the US would give $6.6B to Taiwan’s TSMC (the world’s largest chipmaker) to help build three factories in Arizona. TSMC manufactures chips for huge names like Apple, Advanced Micro Devices, and Nvidia. China, a big importer of US chips, has also boosted domestic production as it faces sanctions. Last year Biden barred China from importing advanced AI chips, like Nvidia’s H100, which could be used in military tech. China responded by curbing exports of key chip metals like gallium (it controls 98% of global supply).