Samsung Expands Pyeongtaek Chip Hub as AI Memory Demand Climbs

The complex sits in a farming city south of Seoul, where rice paddies abut the sprawling chipmaking campus. The site covers an area about the size of New York City’s Central Park. Construction of a fifth fab was halted during a drop in demand for memory chips in 2024 but restarted when the AI boom sent demand soaring, according to the report.

Just before noon on the Monday of the visit, thousands of construction workers poured out of the fabs. Dressed head to toe in black with sky-blue vests, they took off helmets bearing their names and fab numbers and walked to lunch, sweaty and flushed, in chunky sneakers capped with yellow rubber toe guards. Some rode scooters or motorcycles around the campus. Workers headed to buffets, diners and beef stew joints, passing banners advertising short-term leases for studio apartments; some stopped at real estate offices, stepping up to the same counters where Samsung’s salaried engineers buy new homes.

In front of the fourth fab, Choi Hye-rin, a 35-year-old safety officer, wiped her forehead with a handkerchief. She had boarded a shuttle bus at dawn from Songtan, an older district, and oversees the safety of a crew building cable ducts. She writes reports, inspects equipment and checks the chemicals workers handle. She is one of hundreds of women working on site, many employed as spotters who walk ahead of heavy equipment.

Safety messages are visible across the site. After lunch, construction resumed as excavators moved past rust-red steel structures rising under tower cranes. Banners hanging from the highest girders read, “Even if the work runs late, don’t rush.” A giant LED scoreboard announced the winners of a contest for writing a poem about safety. Helmets stickered with a pledge — “I will not work if it’s not safe” — sat atop lockers. Across the street, the finished fabs glistened.

Samsung predicts that demand for memory chips will continue to surge through 2028. For years, the company watched its domestic rival SK Hynix pull ahead in the global market for high-bandwidth models that power Nvidia’s AI accelerators. Meanwhile, Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC has dominated the foundry business, manufacturing chips that other companies design. The Pyeongtaek build-out is Samsung’s attempt to reclaim its lead on memory chips.

Hye-rin said she has no plans to leave. “The rate here is higher than other construction sites, and the work is relatively easy,” she said. She gets paid 140,000 won ($97) a day and expects the boom to keep her busy for some time: “You just keep coming back.”