South Korea’s trade ministry announced a $205 million (274.4 billion won) investment in the country’s semiconductor packaging industry to keep pace in the rapidly advancing fields of artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC).

However, despite this investment and a newly signed memorandum of understanding (MOU) between key industry players, the country’s historical focus on vertical integration and weak horizontal collaboration raises concerns about whether it can remain competitive in advanced packaging technologies.