Samsung Electronics declared on July 13, 2026, that it plans to start operations at its first chip fabrication plant in Yongin city, south of Seoul, by 2029, moving up from the original 2030-2031 schedule [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. The Yongin fab will be the first of six semiconductor factories Samsung intends to build within the Yongin National Industrial Complex [3, 4, 5].
The acceleration aims to meet surging global demand for memory chips fueled by rapid growth in AI infrastructure, especially for high bandwidth memory and server DRAM. An industry source said, "The first wafer fab being put into operation ahead of schedule will allow Samsung to respond more quickly to the rising global demand for AI chips" [3]. A Samsung spokesperson stated plans to begin operations at Yongin by 2029, one to two years earlier than initially targeted [1].
The Yongin fab, originally intended as an R&D center, was repurposed to mass production due to the AI chip demand surge [6]. It will have an estimated monthly capacity of about 100,000 wafers [6, 7]. Construction on the DRAM fab is expected to begin as early as the third quarter of 2026 [6, 7].
Samsung plans to invest about 2,030 trillion South Korean won (approx. NT$43.3 trillion) across Pyeongtaek and Yongin semiconductor parks, with an additional 400 trillion won set for two new fabs in Gwangju city [3, 4, 5]. This investment supports a government-backed plan to double South Korea’s memory chip production within five years [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. The South Korean government is also accelerating development of the Yongin National Industrial Complex as a strategic semiconductor cluster [3, 4, 5].
Samsung and SK Hynix recently pledged investments totaling hundreds of trillions of won to expand memory chip manufacturing capacity in South Korea [1, 2, 5].
Construction at the Yongin site is on track to start in Q3 2026, setting the stage for operations in 2029 [6, 7].
