A visit to Samsung’s massive new semiconductor hub

Samsung’s big bet on AI hardware is taking shape in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, where the company is building a sprawling semiconductor complex to feed demand for memory chips. Three fabs are already running nonstop, a fourth is being brought online, and work on a fifth stopped during last year’s memory slump before starting again as AI pushed demand higher.

The place feels less like a factory than a small city built around chips. Rice paddies sit right next to the campus, which stretches about as far as Central Park in New York. At midday, thousands of workers file out for lunch in black work clothes and blue vests, some on scooters, some on motorcycles, all moving through a site that has its own apartments, food spots, and real estate offices.

Safety has become part of the branding, and not in a subtle way. Banners tell workers not to rush even if the job runs late. A large LED board tracks a safety-poem contest. Helmets carry the pledge that workers won’t continue if conditions aren’t safe. That matters on a site full of cranes, steel, excavators, chemical checks, and people moving in close quarters.

The urgency is real, though. Samsung says memory demand will keep climbing through 2028, and the company has been watching SK Hynix pull ahead in the market for the high-bandwidth memory used in Nvidia’s AI accelerators. This build-out is Samsung trying to claw back ground. For workers like safety officer Choi Hye-rin, it also means steady pay: 140,000 won, or $97, a day, and a feeling that the line never quite stops.