The Semiconductor Revolution: How Korea Became the Heart of Global Silicon

The 1980s brought expanding Korean investment in memory production. Company histories trace the development of research and manufacturing capabilities through successive chip generations.

Korea’s memory industry illustrates sustained investment in research, manufacturing and technical learning. Company histories document milestones, while market shares and rankings require a defined product, period and source.

When the generative AI boom erupted, GPUs faced severe memory bandwidth bottlenecks: standard chips could not supply data fast enough to train massive parameters.

SK hynix and Samsung work on high-bandwidth memory (HBM). Its design stacks and interconnects memory dies to transfer data; specifications and applications vary with the product generation and system design.

Gyeonggi brings together factories, companies and institutions associated with semiconductors. These relationships frame the industry as a supply chain spanning design, materials, equipment and fabrication rather than an isolated factory.

Announced investment and operating facilities are different. Read expansion plans against their official scope and timetable: future targets are not present-day production.