U.S. investment unfazed by Trump tariffs at Korea's chip convention

Home > Business > Industry

U.S. investment unfazed by Trump tariffs at Korea's chip convention

Published: 19 Feb. 2025, 18:23 Updated: 19 Feb. 2025, 18:43

JIN EUN-SOO
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Semicon Korea 2025 event brims with participants at Coex in southern Seoul on Wednesday. [YONHAP]

U.S. President Donald Trump's “America first” policy on chips will open new opportunities for material, components and equipment makers from Korea, according to the U.S. Investment Forum held during Semicon Korea 2025 on Wednesday.

“Having a local supply chain will become more important with more investments to be made in the United States due to the influence of the tariff policy,” said Kim Chang-wook, partner at Boston Consulting Group, who gave a presentation about the “U.S. Market Environment for Semiconductor Companies” at the forum.

“As one of the means for having local supply chains, chip equipment makers will try to look for new partners, so if Korean components and materials suppliers for chip equipment can advance into the U.S. and collaborate, it will be a nice opportunity in terms of both business and R&D.”

Park added that there are more opportunities for Korean material, components and equipment companies to form partnerships with American integrated device manufacturers (IDM) that are relatively small in size compared to companies like Intel.

“When I asked American companies of what they would need from Korea, they said that Korean suppliers or governmental supports are concentrated on big IDM companies. So they hoped to collaborate and also get help from the Korean service work force.”

The looming uncertainty from chip tariffs has also expedited U.S. advancement processes from Korean suppliers, according to Julie Kim, a Korean director at Arizona Commerce Authority.

“Big companies like Samsung and SK hynix have already confirmed their investment in the U.S., so there is no choice for smaller suppliers but to make advancements to the U.S.,” she said to the Korea JoongAng Daily at the forum.

“The uncertainties have only expedited the process. The companies who were mulling over the decision think now is the time to go for it.”

For some chipmakers, uncertainty has pulled them back from making immediate decisions.

“Most of the inquiries I get from chipmakers in Korea, most of which are suppliers to big companies, are about potential risks lying behind advancing to the U.S., since there are looming uncertainties in regards to tariffs under the Trump administration,” said an official from one state government on Wednesday who wished to stay anonymous.

“I see them taking a cautious, wait-and-see approach until the uncertainty fades.”

The U.S. Investment Forum is co-hosted by Semicon Korea and SelectUSA, an investment arm of the U.S. government dedicated to attracting investment from foreign companies to its home turf. At this year's edition, it invited officials from the state governments of Texas, Indiana, New York and Arizona, all of which have facilitated hefty investment from Korean companies.

The event took place a day after President Trump reiterated tariffs of more than 25 percent on imported chips at a news conference in Washington and added the rate would increase over the course of a year.

He said the time period during which the tax will be imposed is not confirmed, saying he wants to give chipmakers some “time to come in.”

Prospects that global chip industry will reach $1 trillion by as early as 2030 were also made on the opening day of Semicon Korea.

Gartner Vice President and senior analyst Gaurav Gupta noted that by 2030 or 2031, the $1 trillion won market will be pivoted by AI accelerators and the rising price of memory products at another news conference held Wednesday.

Annual investment in the chip industry will reach $700 billion this year with a prospect to surpass $800 billion by 2027, according to Gupta. He added that sales of high bandwidth memory, a core product for AI processors, will increase by more than 60 percent this year.

Semicon Korea, which is the country's largest semiconductor exhibition, will run under the theme “Lead the Edge” in southern Seoul from Wednesday to Thursday. Some 500 global chipmakers, including Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, Micron Technology, GlobalFoundries, ASML and Lam Research participated this year.

BY JIN EUN-SOO [[email protected]]