Korea is throwing more money at its domestic chips

Summary: Korea has just increased its funding in its vital semiconductor manufacturing business. This is in response to growing uncertainty due to tariffs and competition with China.

Right now, things are pretty uncertain for the world of tech as U.S. President Donald Trump is bringing tariffs at an alarming rate. These tariffs affect many of countries around the world, and they’re causing instability in most markets.

Korea, Samsung’s homeland, is one of the countries affected by these tariffs, and it’s making some changes to cope. Last year, Korea allocated 26 trillion Won to increase its vital semiconductor industry. Well, this year, the country made a large investment, and it’s also making more changes.

Korea boosts the funding for its vital semiconductor business to cope with tariffs

This year, Korea is pushing a bunch more money to help boost its domestic chip market. It increased the funding to 33 trillion Won, which converts to roughly $23.25 billion. That’s a notable increase, and it shows that there’s rising pressure.

Last year, Korea made $46.6 billion from chip exports to the U.S. and $10.7 billion from exports to China. This made up a whopping 21% of the company’s total, so the tariffs on these goods could have a pretty big effect on the country’s economy. As such, Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok said that the Korean government is actively talking to the U.S. about its Section 232 investigations into semiconductor and biopharmaceutical imports. It’s looking to soften the blow of these tariffs.

Right now, there’s no telling what’s going to happen at this moment. These tariffs are meant to encourage bully companies into pushing their manufacturing over to the U.S., but all they seem to be doing is pissing off the rest of the world and waging a trade war that doesn’t need to even exist.

The president proposed an exemption for certain markets, so we shouldn’t expect to see massive price increases for iPhones and other tech. However, we’ll just need to see how this pans out. These tariffs affect more than just tech.

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