Investing.com — A reported $1.3 trillion investment pledge from South Korea’s two semiconductor giants sent chip-equipment stocks soaring on Tuesday, pushing KLA Corporation, Applied Materials, ASML and Lam Research to or near their 52-week highs with roughly an hour left in the session.
KLA Corporation () is the standout mover, currently trading up 9.28% at $304.23, just below its 52-week high of $304.42. Applied Materials () is up 6.02% at $736.46, having touched a fresh 52-week high of $739.32 intraday. Lam Research () is gaining 5.86% at $435.00, within pennies of its 52-week peak of $436.06. ASML Holding (), the world’s sole maker of extreme ultraviolet lithography machines and an essential supplier for any new fab construction, is up 5.33% at $1,983.50 after hitting an intraday 52-week high of $1,990.
The catalyst: the South Korean government announced Monday that and plan to invest more than $500 billion in a new chip-making hub in southwestern South Korea. Samsung and SK Hynix said they would each invest about 400 trillion won (roughly $260 billion) in the new hub, with the southwestern city of Gwangju identified as a likely site for Samsung’s new factories. An additional 81 trillion won (roughly $53 billion) will be spent on chip-packaging facilities in the central region. The initiative envisions the creation of four new memory chip-making plants in the southwest, diversifying from the two companies’ current production centers, which are all in the Seoul region. The Samsung Group and SK Hynix said they expected to invest a total of more than $2 trillion over the long term in relation to the megaprojects — a figure that already exceeds an earlier Maeil Business Newspaper report that had Samsung alone pledging more than 1,000 trillion won ($646 billion). A separate report cited Samsung Group alone pledging up to $1.7 trillion, a figure Bloomberg and major wires have not corroborated.
President Lee Jae Myung announced the initiative in a televised address: “We must secure absolute competitiveness in advanced technologies including semiconductors and AI, and make sure the fruits of this growth are distributed evenly nationwide and felt by all citizens.”
The chiefs of Samsung and SK Hynix stated that their existing investments would not be enough to meet demand. SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won said: “A new manufacturing base is needed to meet the memory shortage that’s expected to continue,” adding that the firm was also fast-tracking new memory factories in Yongin and Cheongju. The investments are part of what the government is calling its three megaprojects, aimed at strengthening South Korea’s capabilities in semiconductors, AI data centers and AI-driven robotics.
President Lee hosted a meeting with major company executives at the presidential office on June 29, where Samsung and SK presented their investment plans alongside government ministers covering industry, science, climate and land policy. South Korea’s presidential policy chief Kim Yong-beom had telegraphed the scale of the announcement in a YouTube interview on June 27, saying “very unusual figures” would be unveiled at the event.
For equipment suppliers, the logic is straightforward: every new fab requires billions of dollars in process tools. ASML’s EUV machines are non-negotiable for leading-edge logic and DRAM production, making it a direct and unavoidable beneficiary of Samsung’s and SK Hynix’s expansion plans. Lam Research supplies the etch and deposition equipment that underpins both NAND and DRAM scaling, while KLA provides process control and inspection systems critical at every step of advanced chip manufacturing. Applied Materials touches nearly every layer of fab construction. The decade-long investment horizon means sustained order flows rather than a single capex spike, which analysts view as a more durable tailwind for equipment revenue.
The move also lands as semiconductors assert historic dominance over U.S. equity benchmarks. Chip stocks now account for a record 19.7% of the S&P 500 as of June 30, per Yahoo Finance, a weighting driven by AI infrastructure buildout that shows no sign of reversing. Bloomberg described the Samsung-SK commitment as “one of the biggest bets yet on the artificial intelligence boom,” with the investments reflecting mounting demand for AI chips, memory and data center infrastructure. Global demand for memory chips is surging as they are a critical component of AI systems, with prices rising to record levels amid a worldwide shortage.
Looking ahead, investors will watch for formal company-level press releases from Samsung Electronics and SK Group confirming the exact investment totals and timelines. Any formal confirmation, or upward revision of individual pledges, could extend the rally further. Conversely, if subsequent announcements scale back the headline figures, a portion of today’s gains could unwind quickly. The broader question for equipment names is order book visibility: street analysts will be focused on whether management teams at ASML, KLA, Applied Materials and Lam Research raise capital expenditure guidance at upcoming earnings calls in response to the Korean commitment.