South Korea and the Netherlands vowed to formally establish a “chip alliance,” indicating a significant step in advancing bilateral hi-tech exchanges – a move that would benefit U.S. President Joe Biden’s initiative to establish an alternative supply chain that requires less of China.
South Korea’s first deputy director of the National Security Office, Kim Tae-hyo, said during a news conference in Amsterdam Tuesday that the South and the Netherlands have agreed to seek “exceptional cooperation in the semiconductor field” and pursue an “alliance” in cooperating to jointly deal with “semiconductor supply chain crises.”
“After close consultation, both sides decided to include the term ‘chip alliance’ in the upcoming joint statement,” Kim added.
The briefing came as South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol made his four-day state-visit to the Netherlands starting Monday. Yoon is set to meet his Dutch counterpart Wednesday.
The “chip alliance” between the two states already began to take shape with South Korea’s tech giant Samsung Electronics and Netherland’s AMSL signing an memorandum of understanding (MOU) vowing a joint investment of US$760 million (1 trillion won), to establish a next-generation semiconductor manufacturing technology R&D center in South Korea, according to the South’s Chief Economic Secretary, Park Chun-sup, Tuesday.
“This R&D center will jointly develop ultra-fine manufacturing processes based on next-generation EUV lithography,” Park said in a briefing in the Netherlands. The R&D center is the first of its kind that ASML is establishing with a semiconductor manufacturing company abroad.
South Korea is a major powerhouse in semiconductor manufacturing, while the Netherlands has a strong market advantage in equipment and material sectors. Advanced cooperation between the two could make a significant impact in the global semiconductor market.
To indicate the new chip alliance between the two states, Yoon accompanied prominent figures of South Korea’s semiconductor giants on this state visit. Jay Y. Lee of Samsung Electronics and Tae-won Chey of SK Hynix are included in the South Korean delegation.
Yoon, alongside Lee and Chey, visited ASML’s clean room on Tuesday. This visit marked the first time ASML opened its clean room facility to a foreign delegation. South Korea’s Presidential Office described this event as a symbol of the strong bilateral ties focused on chip cooperation.
Seoul is hopeful that the MOU will offer its semiconductor giants a chance to secure an advantageous position in the global market, and support the Washington-led initiative to establish an alternative supply chain, a senior South Korean official, requesting anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the matter, told Radio Free Asia.
The joint investment is most likely to focus on securing technological superiority in the field of 2-nanometer technology, the person added, without further elaboration.
Separately, South Korea’s trade ministry and the Dutch foreign ministry signed an MOU Tuesday for the establishment of a ‘Semiconductor Academy,’ in which South Korean students and professionals will have the opportunity to receive training at ASML’s headquarters and at the Eindhoven University of Technology.
“Cultivating talent and sharing know-how are activities that only a true chip alliance states can undertake,” South Korea’s Chief Economic Secretary Park said in a briefing. “We anticipate that this will further activate the exchange between the future generations in the semiconductor field of both countries.”
Such moves between two nations add weight to U.S. President Joe Biden’s strategy to create an alternative global supply chain that knits democratic nations closer together while requiring less of China’s input.
The core of this initiative is strengthening tech cooperation among like-minded nations such as South Korea, the Netherlands, Japan and the self-ruled island of Taiwan. Cutting dependence on Chinese components and resources is seen as a derisking exercise for businesses given that Beijing has intertwined politics with economics and imposed measures on countries that make political decisions contrary to its interests.
Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.