South Korea bets $1 trillion on chips, AI data centers, and Atlas robots by 2028

South Korea unveiled a $1 trillion push combining expanded memory-chip production, new AI data centers, and commercial humanoid robots by 2028, backed by Samsung, SK Hynix, Hyundai and others. The plan includes about $585 billion for new chip fabs to double DRAM and $357 billion for large AI data centers, plus Hyundai’s $5.8 billion investment to scale Atlas robots to up to 30,000 per year. Authorities also seek a national physical-AI program and a Korean foundation model, but face power/water needs and labor concerns over robotics impacting jobs.