South Korea Denies Reports of Using Chips as First U.S. Investment

BlockBeats News, August 18th: South Korea denied reports discussing chip as its first U.S. investment. The South Korean presidential office said on Tuesday, "Claims that the two countries discussed the semiconductor as the first strategic investment project are not true." The South Korean presidential office did not disclose details of the negotiations between Seoul and Washington regarding the investment commitment.

Earlier, the Korea Economic Daily reported that South Korea's first investment project, originally planned to be announced later this month, faced uncertainty as Washington suddenly sought investment in U.S. memory chip facilities.

According to the report, this request became a focal point of discussion at a closed-door trade meeting held at the presidential office on August 13th. South Korea had initially considered the energy sector as the primary direction for its first major investment in the U.S. Officials at the meeting generally believed that investing in a U.S. memory chip factory was not feasible, as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix had already committed to investing at least $88 billion in chip and data center construction.