Amkor Technology Korea broke ground on Oct 19 at its Gwangju plant with a budget three times the size announced four months ago. The subsidiary will spend KRW 3T through 2031, up from KRW 1T, and hire about 2,000 people instead of 1,000.
Four advanced packaging buildings are planned. Two finish in the second half of 2027 and the remaining two in the first half of 2028, with output ramping in phases. It is the largest investment at the site since the plant opened in 1999.
Why the extra money appeared
The original figure was pledged at a June 30 presidential briefing on the southwest region’s industrial plan. Amkor then decided to add production lines, which pushed the total up by KRW 2T.
Packaging has moved from a back-end chore to a performance lever. Stacking and connecting dies now decides how much bandwidth and efficiency an AI accelerator can deliver once transistor scaling gets expensive, and Yole Group expects the advanced packaging market to grow from about $55B in 2025 to over $120B by 2031.
Wastewater nearly stalled it
Water treatment for the expanded site became a live problem as the investment grew. After Amkor asked for help, the new Jeonnam-Gwangju integrated city opened talks with Jangseong County, which agreed to connect the plant to its public wastewater facility. The two sides signed an agreement two days after the request.
City mayor Min Hyungbae held the deal up as an early dividend of merging the two administrations. Amkor runs more than 20 sites across eight countries and its Korean arm employs around 8,400 people in Gwangju, Songdo and Bupyeong.
The project is the first factory to move into construction under the government’s southwestern development initiative.
