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SAMSUNG is investing US$14.26 billion into what it calls the “Samsung Semiconductor Valley”, a massive semiconductor production facility in South Korea.
The Samsung investment is said to be the biggest investment thus far for a single semiconductor production line. The “Semiconductor Valley” complex in Pyeongtaek is set to start operations in 2017. The complex covers an area of 2,892,561 square metres (equivalent to 400 soccer fields), and is almost as big as the combined existing production facilities that Samsung has in the South Korean cities of Giheung and Hwaseong put together.
The US$14.26 billion investment comes three years since Samsung Electronics funded the establishment of 17 semiconductor production lines in its Hwaseong site, in 2012.
The Pyeongtaek site will be Samsung’s advanced manufacturing base, and is seen by industrial analysts as a core part of Samsung’s strategy to further widen the gap between the semiconductor giant and its competitor. It will be responsible for mass production of D-RAM, among other product lines that Samsung can use to compete within the IoT market.
Samsung will also benefit from synergies between the three facility, creating a massive semiconductor cluster in south Korea.
It is as yet unclear what process the new facility will use. While the 20nm process is considered fairly cutting edge today, it is possible that the new production line will use a 10nm process when it starts operations in 2017. This speculation is backed up by Samsung’s plans to start mass producing 10-nano finFET starting end of 2016.