South Korea on Monday introduced a series of major initiatives covering the semiconductor and artificial intelligence (AI) sectors, with President Lee Jae-myung pledging to invest hundreds of billions of dollars over the coming years to solidify the nation's dominant leadership in these industries.

This announcement represents President Lee's most ambitious move to date, aiming to merge the country's aspirations in AI and semiconductors with his commitment to reducing regional disparities and revitalizing the economies of areas outside the greater Seoul metropolitan region.

During the televised press conference, President Lee was joined by leaders from the world's two largest memory chip manufacturers, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and SK Hynix Inc.

"We must master the core elements of AI faster than any other country," President Lee stated. "Semiconductors, physical AI, and AI data centers are the three pillars for us to achieve a great leap forward."

These projects are expected to attract investments from companies including Samsung and SK in the coming years. President Lee added that the Gwangju and South Jeolla regions in the country's southwest will also invest between 5 trillion and 20 trillion won into these initiatives.

As part of the overall plan, President Lee indicated that new large-scale semiconductor production clusters will be established in the southwestern region, partly to utilize the area's abundant, yet underutilized, power resources.

According to local media reports, the total planned investment over the next several years could exceed 1,000 trillion won, equivalent to approximately $651.4 billion.