Samsung and Hyundai have announced around $400 billion in domestic investments in AI just as South Korea finalized its tariff deal with the US.

The announcements were made on November 16, three days after the two countries published a joint fact sheet outlining the terms of a long-awaited trade deal, which will see South Korea invest $350bn in various American sectors, including semiconductors, energy, and AI.

Samsung will invest 450 trillion won ($308bn), with a substantial portion of the funds going towards its data center and semiconductor businesses.

The company will construct a fifth production line in the second complex of its Pyeongtaek plant, which produces HBM chips. It is estimated to begin operating in 2028.

This announcement repackages information revealed in earlier reports, which stated that construction of the production line had been delayed from Q2 2025 to the end of this year at the earliest, following a downturn in customer orders and weak semiconductor performance in comparison to its major competitors SK Hynix and TSMC.

The company added that it would invest in various unnamed facilities to secure the stability of HBM production.

The funds could also be used to construct a production line in South Korea for German air-cooling company Flakt, which Samsung acquired in early November.

The conglomerate’s aggressive investments are all the more striking given the rough year experienced by its flagship semiconductor subsidiary, Samsung Electronics.

Despite showing signs of recovery in its third quarter, where it reported an overall 15.4 percent quarter-over-quarter increase in consolidated revenue and a record-high quarterly revenue for its memory division, the company experienced a massive slump in its second quarter, borne out by a 94 percent year-over-year decrease in operating profit.

Hyundai will invest 125.2 trillion won ($85bn) domestically over five years beginning next year, with 50.5 trillion ($346bn) going to data centers and AI, as well as Software Defined Vehicles, electrification, robotics, and hydrogen.

The carmaker is taking a sector-specific approach to data center buildout, stating that its facilities will be used to process data required for AI model training and operations, with a specific focus on data generated by physical AI robots and autonomous vehicles.

This announcement is similar to another made in late October, in which Hyundai said that it would receive 50,000 Nvidia GPUs as part of an ‘AI factory’ initiative.

The tariff talks between South Korea and the US have been a politically sensitive issue for the Lee Jae-myung administration. In September, the deportation of South Korean engineers following a televised immigration raid on an EV battery plant in Georgia sparked anger amongst the public.

Around the same time, President Trump also demanded that South Korea make its $350bn investment in a lump sum, with President Lee stating that this move would leave the country facing “a situation as it had in the 1997 financial crisis.”

US tariffs on South Korea have been set at 15 percent. Tariffs on South Korean cars and auto parts have been reduced from 25 percent to 15 percent, and tariffs on semiconductors will be set at terms “no less favorable” than may be offered in a future agreement with another country with a comparable semiconductor industry.