Key points
- SK Hynix wants as much land as possible
- Nine rounds of talks with SK Hynix since July
- Samsung's next talks are at Pyeongtaek on October 6
- First production is still targeted for June 2030
SK Hynix (000660) wants as much production land as possible at the chip cluster planned for Gwangju's military airport, while Samsung Electronics (005930) wants preparations accelerated, according to a city account of negotiations released September 25.
The Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City (전남광주통합특별시) plans to sign a siting agreement with SK Hynix in October after nine rounds of talks since July. City officials are scheduled to visit Samsung's Pyeongtaek campus on October 6 for talks with senior management, Yonhap News (연합뉴스) reported.
Neither company has commented on the city's account, and the city didn't name the Samsung executives who will attend. The two companies plan to spend a combined 800 trillion won ($589B) on four memory fabs at the site, as we reported on September 24.
SK Hynix seeks a large site
The city opened a dedicated channel with SK Hynix right after the investment plans were announced in late June. Those nine meetings included both executives and working-level staff. The city said those talks confirmed SK Hynix's active willingness to invest and its "demand for a large site."
SK Hynix executives toured the airport site several times, starting on July 13 and July 24. On July 29, a company president and seven vice presidents visited together. On September 1, Mayor Min Hyung-bae (민형배) went to SK Hynix's Icheon campus and met CEO Kwak Noh-jung (곽노정) to discuss the industrial complex, the fab locations, and long-term cooperation.
The city said it will use the October agreement to start talks on strategy, construction, and infrastructure for carrying out the investment. The Honam fabs would come on top of SK Hynix's planned plants in Yongin and Cheongju.
Samsung wants to move faster
Samsung's message has been about timing. Kim Yong-kwan (김용관), president and head of management strategy for Samsung's chip division, spoke about it twice in August.
On August 11, at a meeting in Yongin with a Democratic Party special committee, he talked about how fast the Yongin national industrial complex is being built. "I still think it's slow," he said. "Please give us a lot of support for a more aggressive race for speed, an all-out charge."
The next day, at a signing ceremony for power supply to the Honam chip complex, he noted that the Yongin complex's target start date had been moved up to October 2029. "Preparation for the Honam investment will also be pulled forward a lot," he said.
Samsung hasn't given a new date for its Honam fabs. In July, Samsung's vice presidents and presidents inspected the airport site, and city staff visited the Pyeongtaek campus to discuss land, power, water, transport, and logistics.
What the city plans next
The whole site covers 8.26 million square meters, about 2.5 million pyeong. In response to the companies' requests, the city plans to supply about 630,000 pyeong first, including land where an ammunition depot is due to move out. The city aims to start site work in 2027, have initial power and water ready by the end of 2028, and begin mass production in June 2030.
AI cloud company Elice Group also plans to spend most of the money from its Kosdaq IPO on a data center in the Honam region.
Meanwhile, Korean markets were closed on September 24 and 25 for the Chuseok holiday. Samsung last closed at 286,500 won ($211) and SK Hynix at 1,863,000 won ($1,373) on September 23.
Quotes are translated from Korean. Won figures are converted at 1,357.10 won to the dollar, Naver Finance's closing rate on September 23, 2026. One pyeong is about 3.3 square meters.
