Doha: South Korea plans to develop a new semiconductor production base in the country's southwestern region through 800 trillion won ($517.9 billion) in corporate investments that will create four memory chip fabrication plants.

According to Qatar News Agency, Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan unveiled the investment plan to transform the Gwangju and Jeolla regions into the nation's second major semiconductor cluster, alongside the existing hub in the Seoul metropolitan area, during a national investment briefing chaired by President Lee Jae Myung at Cheong Wa Dae.

The semiconductor investment is part of the government's "three mega projects" initiative, which calls for large-scale investments by chip giants Samsung Electronics Co. and SK hynix Inc., as well as other companies, in semiconductors, physical artificial intelligence (AI) and AI data centers.