Samsung Lifts Chungcheong Megaproject to 144 Trillion Won, Pulling HBM and OLED Plants Forward

On the 12th, at Samsung Electronics' Onyang campus in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, Samsung held a groundbreaking ceremony for what it calls the Chungcheong region megaproject. There it disclosed that the total investment has risen to 144 trillion won, roughly $108 billion. That is 4 trillion won more than the 140 trillion won plan announced in July, an increase made in four months, and some of the plants' start dates have also been pulled forward.

Four affiliates are taking part. Samsung Display carries the largest share at 67 trillion won, about $50.2 billion, for Asan and Cheonan. Samsung Electronics is putting in 60 trillion won, about $45 billion, in Asan and Cheonan. Samsung SDI has 9 trillion won for Cheonan, and Samsung Electro-Mechanics has 8 trillion won for Sejong. The stated aim is a production ecosystem for semiconductors, displays and batteries centered on Asan, Cheonan and Sejong.

Chips are moving fastest. Samsung Electronics' 60 trillion won is up from 56 trillion won in July, and it will build a base for high-bandwidth memory, or HBM. Line 5 at the Onyang campus, where the ceremony took place, will first receive 6 trillion won. The plant will have three above-ground floors and about 9,400 pyeong of total floor area, and it will make next-generation HBM products. Because server memory demand is surging, the construction schedule has been moved up a year from the original plan. Foundation work is under way, with operations targeted for June 2028. The company intends to link its Onyang and Cheonan sites to strengthen HBM production and advanced packaging, and to make the region a global hub for semiconductor back-end processing.

Chairman Lee Jae-yong, in his welcoming address, recalled that the site was bare mountains and unpaved roads 40 years ago. It grew into a plant that assembles, inspects and completes semiconductors, which he called the rice of industry. He said it will now turn from simple assembly and inspection of general chips to cutting-edge HBM, which he called the heart of AI semiconductors. He described the megaproject as a historic challenge to redraw South Korea's future, and said that if central and local governments and companies pool their efforts, a great national leap is possible.

Samsung Display's centerpiece is the A7 line in Asan, which will receive 5.9 trillion won, about $4.4 billion. It will have roughly 170,000 pyeong of floor area and will make OLED panels for foldable devices, tablets and laptops. Construction began in October, and mass production is targeted for the second half of 2029. The company points to OLED demand widening from smartphones to tablets, laptops and extended reality devices. CEO Lee Cheong said Samsung Display will make differentiated products no one can match and complete the future display cluster early.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics will spend 8 trillion won at Sejong to expand AI server package substrates. Of that, 4.3 trillion won, about $3.2 billion, goes to a new plant with four above-ground floors and about 30,000 pyeong of floor area. Construction began in October, with mass production aimed at September 2028 by shortening the build as much as possible, to meet fast requests from global Big Tech companies. The company is also pursuing extra land near Sejong and a larger investment than first planned. CEO Jang Duck-hyun said bold investment, fast construction and accelerated mass production would help put South Korea at the center of the AI era.

Samsung SDI's 9 trillion won at Cheonan is meant to develop key next-generation battery technologies and build a mother factory that verifies new production processes. Construction finished in July last year, equipment has run since November of that year, and more is still arriving. The company expects demand for next-generation batteries to expand into data centers, humanoid robots and aerospace.

Jun Young-hyun, vice chairman and head of the DS Division, said construction has moved quickly since the announcement thanks to active administrative support from national and local governments. He said Samsung will proceed without disruption on the Honam and Yeongnam megaprojects and the Seoul metropolitan area semiconductor cluster as well.

The logic is that back-end processing and materials are becoming decisive in AI infrastructure as front-end miniaturization nears its limits, and packaging that stacks or bonds chips now shapes performance. If the plan runs on schedule, the region will combine chip back-end processing, next-generation displays and battery verification. The pressure point is that shortened schedules and overlapping affiliate projects raise the burden of funding and the competition for equipment and personnel.