Samsung Breaks Ground on $260 Billion Yongin Chip Complex, Pulls First Fab Forward to October 2029

Samsung Electronics is about to begin full-scale construction on what is set to become one of the world's largest semiconductor manufacturing clusters. The company said on Saturday that work will start this month on the Yongin Advanced System Semiconductor National Industrial Complex, a project backed by roughly 360 trillion won — about $260 billion — in private investment. 

The announcement came during the 2026 Yongin Cyber Science Festival at Yongin Mir Stadium, a two-day event that draws about 40,000 visitors a year. Samsung doubled its presence from two booths last year to four this year, presenting a bird's-eye view of the complex's blueprint alongside its plans for energy and water management to local residents. 

Site preparation is running ahead of schedule. Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH) completed contractor selection for the first section of site development two months earlier than planned, clearing the way for full-scale construction to begin in October. 

Samsung has also accelerated its own timetable: the first semiconductor production facility is now targeted to begin operations in October 2029, roughly a year earlier than the company's previous plan for the second half of 2030. 

The complex will cover about 7.3 million square meters and house six large-scale fabs, three power plants, and more than 60 suppliers of materials, parts and equipment. Samsung expects around 70 materials, parts and equipment suppliers and fabless chip design firms to set up operations alongside it, with the project projected to create about 1.6 million jobs. 

A complex of this scale will consume enormous amounts of electricity and water, and Samsung used the festival to explain how it plans to supply both. Three liquefied natural gas (LNG) cogeneration facilities planned for the complex could also supply energy to nearby apartments, hospitals, schools, sports facilities and welfare facilities. 

On water, the company pledged to recycle hundreds of thousands of tons of treated wastewater a day. Samsung said it is pursuing a project with the climate ministry and local governments to further purify effluent from public sewage treatment facilities and reuse it as industrial water at its sites, aiming to reduce fresh-water use in chip manufacturing. 

The accelerated schedule reflects the pressure of the global race for semiconductor capacity as demand from artificial intelligence keeps surging. Yongin sits at the center of South Korea's bet: rival SK hynix is also building a 600-trillion-won semiconductor complex in Yongin's Wonsam district, with the first cleanroom stages of its four fabs targeted for completion by 2033. 

If Samsung holds its new timeline, the first wafers will roll out of Yongin in October 2029 — and South Korea's bid to anchor the next decade of chip production will have moved from blueprints to concrete.