South Korea's AI memory push draws scrutiny from both Taiwan and China

South Korea’s push to anchor Samsung and SK Hynix in a new AI memory cluster in Gwangju–Jeollanamdo reveals deeper anxiety over losing HBM leadership. This move will intensify demand concentration for upstream materials like EUV photoresists and advanced packaging substrates, pressuring Taiwan, China’s foundries to accelerate CoWoS capacity to retain AI chip co-optimization advantages. From a compliance standpoint, excessive state subsidies risk triggering WTO countervailing duties and amplify Western concerns over East Asia’s semiconductor over-concentration, raising operational costs. In response, mainland Chinese memory makers may fast-track domestic equipment validation, while Taiwan, China could deepen heterogeneous integration moats via tighter Nvidia partnerships. Within 12–24 months, global HBM capacity will approach structural oversupply; only those achieving yield maturity and customer certification first will capture market share during the next downturn.