has announced a ₩26-trillion support package for its chip businesses, citing a need to keep up in areas like chip design and contract manufacturing amid “all-out warfare” in the global semiconductor market.said a financial support programme worth about ₩17-trillion was planned through state-run Korea Development Bank to back investments by semiconductor companies, according to the presidential office.
All-out national warfare is under way. Win or lose depends on who can make cutting-edge semiconductors first South Korea’s share of the global fabless sector, which is dominated by companies like US giant Nvidia that design chips but outsource manufacturing, stood at about 1%, Yoon’s office said. There was also a gap between local chip makers and the leading contract chip makers like Taiwan’s TSMC, it said.Industry minister Ahn Duk-geun said the government aimed to help boost South Korea’s global market share in non-memory chips, such as mobile processors, to 10% from the current 2%.
Countries around the world ranging from China to the US have been ploughing tens of billions of dollars via grants and other means to support their own chip sectors.