Taiwan, along with China and Japan, has moved to check Korea's "Three Mega Projects," which encompass 4,755 trillion won in semiconductor and artificial intelligence (AI) investment.
According to Taiwanese media including the United Daily News and the China Times on Tuesday, Liu Pei-chen, a researcher at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER), said competition between the two countries will intensify due to Korea's "Three Mega Projects," which cover semiconductors, AI data centers, and physical AI. Liu predicted that Korea's massive investment would serve as a motivation to spur Taiwan's research and development (R&D) in advanced processes. However, she stressed that TSMC's value as Taiwan's global semiconductor hub would not be shaken.
Lin Wei-chi, vice president of the Topology Industry Trends Research Institute and a former Foxconn vice president, argued that Korea's plan focuses on absorbing the spillover effects of the AI market overseas, and that it imitates the science parks that have been key to Taiwan's success.
He warned that Korea, which lacks a massive domestic market like China's, could fall into a "capital expenditure trap" in which depreciation costs incurred after factories are completed erode profits when global demand slows. He emphasized that even China invested for 10 years yet failed to surpass Taiwan, noting that cultivating clusters requires a long period of time.
China also raised its level of caution. Yicai assessed that "Korea has bet its national fortune for the next 20 to 30 years on AI," adding that "global competition over AI infrastructure will intensify." Quan Xiao-xing, a researcher at the Korean Peninsula Issues Research Center of the University of International Business and Economics, defined the investment as a "national gamble."
Yicai diagnosed that Korea aims to solidify its memory dominance amid the pursuit of the U.S.'s Micron, Japan's Kioxia, and China's CXMT, while expanding this strength into humanoids and AI data centers. The Global Times highlighted the industrial linkage between Korea and China, pointing out that the continued growth of Korea's semiconductor industry depends on overseas demand, particularly the Asian manufacturing ecosystem centered on China.
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) analyzed that Korea "faces several potential obstacles, including the reluctance of employees to relocate away from Seoul to other regions and a dispersed supply chain." Japan's Nikkei forecast that "if the administration changes, policies could differ," adding that "it remains unclear whether the decade-long plan to build semiconductor factories will proceed smoothly."
