Thanks for the memory, South Korea tells nation's chip makers – now build processors

South Korea's president has described the global semiconductor industry as "a field where all-out national warfare is underway" as he announced a $19 billion to diversify the nation's silicon sector. In remarks presented on Thursday at a government economic review meeting, President Yoon Suk Yeol called for South Korea to " …

[Anonymous Coward]

Reverse tax

By now the semiconductor and fab industry must be close to the worlds most subsidized industry. How much is subsidy in percentage of turnover yet? And how much is it in percentage of profit?

It starts to be as badly over-subsidized as milk, butter and sugar used to be in the European union in the eighties. And we got an expensive milk lake and butter mountain for it. Now what will we get? Even more AI and datacenters everywhere consuming all electricity it can while leaving old people in the heat during a heatwave because bit barns can pay more for electricity for their cooling then elderly homes can?

[Lurko]

Re: Reverse tax

Well, global semiconductor market size is estimated at $610bn a year by one widely quoted source, I'll let you gather the data on the subsidies!

[in_for_the_fun]

Do the south koreans feel that their chinese competitors are about to eat their lunch? Is that why they want to diversify?

[Locomotion69]

I guess not - they want to prepare for an event that might disable Taiwan to provide for the world's demand in chips.