Source: The Next Web
South Korea's semiconductor-AI complex faces a hard infrastructure ceiling: meeting projected demand growth of 25-30 gigawatts would require building capacity equivalent to 20 new nuclear reactors, forcing a direct choice between aggressive AI investment and grid stability. The country's existing power infrastructure—already under strain—cannot absorb this demand without significant capital deployment, making energy supply a competitive constraint for chipmakers like Samsung and SK Hynix competing against better-resourced US and Chinese fabs. Exponential compute growth requires exponential energy, and South Korea cannot legislate its way to grid capacity.