9 Years for a Power Line: Who Gets Paid as Korea Fast-Tracks Its Chip Fab Paperwork

Korea's government said on Friday that the race in chips is now a race against the clock, and it announced 13 changes to cut the time it takes to build a chip fab. Permits, land payments and design can now run side by side. Whole chip parks can become one customs zone. Paperwork that used to queue will move together. But none of the 13 changes builds a power line, and Korea's own grid plan says a new high-voltage line takes about nine years. The fab shell takes about two. That gap decides who gets paid, and when. The stuck step is the power line.

KOREA PULSE · SEMICONDUCTORS · AI DATA CENTERS · Data as at 24 Oct 2026 · Next update: SK hynix third-quarter results, 28 Oct
Affects: Semiconductors · AI Data Centers · Hyperscalers — Markets: Korea · Taiwan · US

Education only, not advice to buy or sell any security. Figures are as published by the government, KEPCO and the companies, or as reported by the newspapers named. Most dates are targets, not contracts. Our own sums are labelled.

The numbers that matter this week

Figures from the trade ministry (23 Oct 2026), LH via the Asia Business Daily (1 Oct 2026), SK hynix, the climate and energy ministry’s September grid plan and the 19 Oct 2026 National Assembly audit as reported by Insight Energy News. Status chips are Second Order’s read.

On this page: Why it matters · The 13 changes · The customs part · The site clock · The fab clock · The power clock · Why lines are slow · Water · Our math · Who gets paid · What is stuck? · Dates next · What would change this · FAQ

Why does Korea's fab paperwork matter to who gets paid in AI?

Because Korea makes most of the world's AI memory, and it cannot make enough. Every AI accelerator ships with stacks of high-bandwidth memory, mostly from SK hynix and Samsung, and prices are rising because demand is ahead of supply. The lasting answer is more fabs. So every month cut from building one is money: for the chipmaker, its toolmakers and the AI buyers waiting on the chips.

We have tracked the money side of Korea's memory boom this month: record chip exports in the Customs final ICT Pulse and the cooling daily run rate in the 1–20 October Pulse. We also looked at the power side, in the SK hynix fab power Pulse on 11 October, which found SK hynix wants to build faster than Korea can wire its sites. This week the government answered with a plan to cut waiting time. What it leaves out matters as much as what it fixes.

In Taiwan this week the slow input was woven glass cloth (Taiwan glass cloth Pulse). In Korea it is a strip of land with steel towers on it.

What did Korea announce on 23 October?

At 2 p.m. on Friday 23 October, at the second full meeting of the government's Regulatory Rationalisation Committee, chaired by the president at the Blue House guest house, the trade ministry, the customs service and three other ministries released a package titled, in plain words, measures to cut red tape so chip megaprojects can be built quickly. It has 13 tasks in three groups. Trade minister Kim Jung-kwan's summary was short: chip competition is a fight with time.

The ministry's own reason names the problem the package only partly solves: a fab runs only when its power and water are ready with the building, and a delay at one step pushes back the whole fab. The 13 tasks:

• Run the park steps at once. Park permits, land compensation and design will run side by side instead of one after another. A bill to change the industrial location law was filed on 30 July.
• Bundle the extra permits. In an ultra-wide-area strategic industry special zone, more base-works permits can be handled in one batch, beyond those the chip law already bundles.
• One customs zone per park. One comprehensive bonded zone for a whole park instead of one licence per fab (next section).
• Tax on construction gear can wait. Foreign measuring and testing gear used to build a fab can now defer import tax, as installed tools already could.
• Spare parts kept close. Repair parts made by toolmakers' overseas affiliates can be stored in Korean bonded factories in advance.
• Ship first, file on the way. Trusted bonded factories far from ports can send pre-approved goods first and file the export form in transit.
• One filing for chemicals. A workplace-safety approval for hazardous chemical work will count as the chemicals-law filing too.
• Chip rules for gas cabinets. Checks and change permits for rows of high-pressure gas cabinets handled together; gases that do not react stored together.
• Longer hours for key researchers, maybe. An exception to working-hours limits for core chip researchers in special zones is under review, with pay and health safeguards. Not decided.
• Help local suppliers test. Non-profit chip testbeds will not pay gift tax on tools donated by companies.
• Faster test samples. Fewer advance permits to move research samples out of bonded factories for testing.
• One desk for the schedule. The presidential chip committee coordinates, and a new trade ministry support group, launched on 20 October, tracks each company's fab schedule.
• A special zone law. A new law to give menu-style rule exemptions to big regional investments such as chip megaprojects.

Read the list again and look for a power line. There is none. The package covers land, permits, customs, chemicals, gas, research hours, tax and coordination. The thing every chip fab needs most, a high-voltage line from a power plant to the site, runs under a different plan and a different clock.

Why does the customs change matter so much?

Because almost all of Korea's chip trade lives inside customs fences. A bonded factory is a site where imported tools and materials come in, are used and leave as exports without paying import duty first. The ministry says 95% of Korea's chip exports are made or processed in one.

Today each fab needs its own bonded licence, renewed every five to ten years, and goods moving between fabs in the same park go through their own steps. Under the plan a whole park can be one comprehensive bonded zone, so a wafer, gas or tool moving between buildings stays inside one fence. For a cluster of fabs, gas and water plants and suppliers, that removes many small waits.

The spare parts rule matters too. When one of a fab's hundreds of tools stops, the cost is counted in lost wafers. Many tools come from foreign makers whose parts ship from overseas. Parts stored in Korea before a breakdown mean a shorter stop.

These are real gains, and customs rules can change in months. They help a fab that already has its building, its tools and its power. They do not bring the power.

How fast is the site clock now?

Faster than it was, and the state land developer has already shown what parallel steps can do. LH, the Korea Land and Housing Corporation, is preparing the land for Samsung's national chip park at Yongin, south of Seoul. The park covers about 7.78 million square metres and is planned for six Samsung fabs, three power plants, an industrial gas plant and supplier sites.

• Permits in eight months. LH said the first zone got its approval eight months after the park plan was filed in April 2024.
• Land deals in less than half the time. By running compensation and early works side by side, LH said the time to reach the negotiated-purchase stage can fall from three years and four months to as little as one year and seven months. About 99% of the private land is now through that process.
• Two months saved on works. LH raised the park team from 30 to 53 people, set priority zones and moved the start of site works on the first zone forward by two months, to this autumn. The first zone is about 44% of the park, about 3.45 million square metres, and is where Samsung's lines go. Its estimated cost is about ₩1.09 trillion, LH's largest job this year.

The aim is for Samsung to start building its first Yongin fab in 2028 and run it in 2029, a year or two earlier than the 2030 to 2031 first planned, as reported in September. The 23 October fast track is meant to turn what LH did here by effort into the default for every chip park.

How fast is the fab clock?

Very fast. SK hynix's own Yongin cluster, next to Samsung's park, is the clearest example. Ground was broken on the first fab, known as Y1, in February 2025. SK hynix now expects to open the first clean room in February 2027, three months earlier than the May 2027 it first planned. Opening a clean room means the expensive tools can move in and wafers can start.

• About 24 months, dig to clean room. February 2025 to February 2027, if the target holds. Staff told the Kiho Ilbo on site this week the work is more than 70% done, running around the clock, with full output aimed for end-2027.
• ₩31 trillion for the building alone. ₩9.4 trillion approved in July 2024 and ₩21.6 trillion in February 2026 for Y1's shell and six clean rooms. The tools cost far more.
• The next fab is queued. Y2, worth ₩35.2 trillion, starts in July 2027 with its clean room due in June 2029; the first stage of power and water works for it is 99% built, staff said.
• Four fabs by 2033. In June SK hynix moved the finish of all four Yongin fabs from 2045 to 2033.

So the shell of a giant memory fab now goes up in about two years. That speed is why the slower parts of the chain now set the pace. For what the share price was assuming about SK hynix's back end before this week, see our members' SK hynix HBM4 Analysis.

How much power is agreed, and when does it arrive?

KEPCO, the state grid company, set out the position in its report to the National Assembly audit, reported on 21 October. A supply agreement is KEPCO's promise to deliver a set amount of power to a site by a set time.

• SK hynix at Yongin: 6 GW agreed. Agreements were signed in 2021, 2024 and this year, and the power works are being built.
• Samsung at Yongin: 6 of 9 GW agreed. Two agreements, in 2024 and this year, cover about 6 GW from 2029. A third, for the last 3 GW, is planned for 2027.
• Honam, the south-west: 3 of 6 GW agreed. Four fabs are planned, two each for Samsung and SK hynix. A first agreement for about 3 GW from 2029 was signed this year; a second, to about 6 GW, is due by year-end. The long-run need is about 6.3 GW, needing at least two 345 kV routes and two 345 kV substations.
• The grid date moved up. The Yongin grid target moved from 2029 to the end of 2028 as the chipmakers sped up; KEPCO said finish dates will match each fab's schedule.
• The bill. Under the national power plan, Korea's transmission lines grow 1.72 times and substations 1.43 times by 2038 from 2023. KEPCO puts the cost at about ₩113 trillion: ₩73 trillion for transmission and substations, ₩40 trillion for local distribution.

An agreement is a promise, not a line in the ground. Our 11 October Pulse looked at how much of SK hynix's need is actually lined up today and how KEPCO would pay for the rest. The point here is different: even the agreed power for both Yongin parks and Honam is timed for 2029, while the first Yongin clean room opens in February 2027. The early fabs ride on smaller, earlier power works. The full parks ride on new 345 kV lines.

Why does a power line take nine years?

Not because towers are hard to build, but because the land under them is hard to agree. A 345 kV line runs for tens of kilometres across farms, hills and villages; every tower needs a site and every route needs local consent and many permits. The climate and energy ministry's September grid plan put a new 345 kV line at about nine years.

At the 19 October audit, lawmaker Jung Hye-kyung set out what that means for Yongin, as reported by Insight Energy News:

• 15 GW, new. The two Yongin parks together need about 15 GW of new power, about the output of ten nuclear reactors.
• The Seoul region already imports. On the peak day of 25 August 2025 the Seoul region used 41.1 GW, made 25.2 GW itself and brought in 15.9 GW, about 39%, from other regions.
• 15 circuits, about 10,000 towers. Bringing 15 GW in from outside would need about fifteen 345 kV circuits and roughly 10,000 towers.
• Most big lines are late. Of 31 major transmission projects, 26 are running 5.5 to 12.5 years behind their first target, mostly because of local opposition and permit delays. By 2038 Korea needs to build new lines equal to about 70% of its current network length.

Jung argued Yongin should be reviewed against where renewable power can actually be supplied, opening the door to more building in the south-west. That is a political view, and we take no side. Her numbers are the useful part: the line is slow for reasons a customs rule or a parallel permit cannot touch.

Korea is not alone: see the paused poles in Melbourne (NEXTDC Melbourne Pulse) and the 3 GW campus in Virginia waiting on its power (Virginia campus Pulse). Our Stack page on how hyperscalers buy power covers why the biggest buyers are now building their own plants beside their sites.

Samsung's Yongin park plan also includes three power plants on site. Power made inside the fence does not need a 345 kV line across someone's farm. It does need fuel, gas pipes and its own permits.

What about water?

Water is the other input a fab cannot run without, and its clock started recently. On 18 September the climate and energy ministry approved the first stage of the shared water supply project for both Yongin parks and started work on the first section the same day.

• First stage: a dedicated pipeline of about 47 kilometres from Paldang Dam on the Han River to the parks, with one pumping station, delivering 310,000 tonnes a day.
• Second stage: another 762,000 tonnes a day, for a total of 1.072 million tonnes a day as the parks fill up.
• Built in sections: K-water started the second of three sections in September and has tendered the other two, the construction press reported on 17 October.

Start the section whose permits are ready, keep permitting the rest: the 23 October idea, used on a pipe. A water pipe is buried, much of it along roads. A 345 kV line hangs on tall towers and usually needs a new corridor across private land, which is why the same trick helps it less.

Our math: what do the clocks say?

• Land deals: three years and four months is 40 months; one year and seven months is 19 months. The best case saves about 21 months, roughly half (our arithmetic).
• Fab shell: February 2025 to February 2027 is about 24 months from ground-breaking to first clean room at SK hynix's Y1 (our arithmetic on company targets).
• Power line: about nine years is about 108 months, roughly four and a half times the 24-month fab shell (our arithmetic).
• Late lines: 26 of 31 is about 84% of Korea's major transmission projects running late (our arithmetic).
• New need versus imports: Yongin's roughly 15 GW is close to the 15.9 GW the Seoul region already brought in on its 2025 peak day, so peak imports would roughly double (our arithmetic).
• Agreed power: SK hynix Yongin 6 of 6 GW; Samsung Yongin 6 of 9 GW, about 67%; Honam 3 of about 6.3 GW, about 48%, rising to about 95% if the second agreement is signed this year. Total agreed across the three about 15 of 21 GW, about 71% (our arithmetic on KEPCO's figures).

What this tells you: the paperwork changes shave months off the front of the job. The power line sets the back of it in years. When the fast step gets faster, the slow step matters more, not less.

Who gets paid first?

First, the fab owners — by the month. SK hynix and Samsung gain from every month cut from the front of a fab, because earlier output sells into a short memory market, and the customs and tax changes lower the cash they lay out before a fab runs. SK hynix reports on 28 October; what it says about spending is the first read.

Second, the toolmakers — at the order, and on service. Faster fabs pull tool orders forward, and tools are paid for before they run. Foreign toolmakers' service work gets easier with pre-stored parts; Korean suppliers get a small boost from the testbed gift-tax rule.

Third, the site builders — by the job. LH's first-zone works at about ₩1.09 trillion, K-water's pipeline sections and the fab construction firms are paid as they build. Running steps side by side moves their work earlier and closer together.

Fourth, the grid builders — later, and over years. KEPCO's ₩113 trillion plan to 2038 is spent on lines, substations, transformers, switchgear and cable. Korea's own power gear makers are the natural suppliers, but our Korea power gear Pulse found their big-transformer exports are now about seven in ten going to the US, with factory slots booked years ahead. Home demand and US demand compete for the same factories.

Last, the ones who wait: Samsung's later Yongin fabs, on the final 3 GW agreement due in 2027; Honam's fabs, on lines not yet routed; KEPCO, carrying the cost before any chip ships; and the AI buyers who need the memory.

One-line rule: in Korea's chip megaprojects, the faster paperwork pays the fab owners and toolmakers first and the site builders next; the grid builders are paid over the long clock; and the full parks run only as fast as the 345 kV lines arrive. The stuck step is the power line.

So what is the stuck step?

The high-voltage power line, and specifically agreeing its route with the land and the people along it. Not the money, which the chipmakers have and are spending. Not the shell of the fab, which goes up in about two years. Not the permits inside the park fence, which the 23 October package speeds up. Three things make it stick:

• It is outside the fence. Every rule in the 13 changes works inside or at the edge of the chip park. A 345 kV line runs through dozens of other places, each with its own say.
• It is long. About nine years for a new line, against about two for the fab shell. Most big lines are already years late.
• It is big. Yongin alone needs about 15 GW of new power, close to what the Seoul region already imports at peak. Adding Honam takes the chip parks' need to about 21 GW.

This is the pattern in our stuck-step Analysis: clear one bind and the next one shows. Korea has just made the paperwork faster. That makes the power line the clock to watch.

Which dates test this read next?

• 28 October 2026 — SK hynix third-quarter results, before 9 a.m. Seoul time, with a call at 9 a.m. Watch what it says about spending at Yongin and any new date for Y1 or Y2.
• By 31 December 2026 — The second Honam power agreement, taking it to about 6 GW, if KEPCO and the chipmakers sign on schedule.
• February 2027 — SK hynix's target to open Y1's first clean room at Yongin.
• 2027 — Samsung's third Yongin power agreement for the last 3 GW; SK hynix's planned start on Y2 in July.
• 2028 — Samsung's target to start building its first Yongin fab; the ministry's target to finish the Yongin grid works by the end of the year.
• 2029 — First power from the new agreements for Samsung's Yongin park and Honam; Samsung's target to run its first Yongin fab; Y2's clean room in June.
• Date not set — Parliament's votes on the industrial location law change filed on 30 July and on the new ultra-wide-area special zone law. Until they pass, the fast track and the bundled permits are plans.

What would change this view?

• A real speed-up on lines. Route deals signed early, or lines finished ahead of target, would loosen the bind.
• More power made on site. If Samsung's three on-site plants and similar plans cover a big share of the load, the bind moves from the line to fuel supply and gas pipes.
• A shift of building to the south-west. If more fabs move to Honam, where power and land are easier, the Yongin line matters less; but Honam's own lines must still be built.
• A memory price turn. If prices fall, the rush eases and months saved matter less.
• Laws that stall. If the location law change and the special zone law do not pass, the 23 October package shrinks to the customs and tax rules.

Practical takeaways

• Korea's 13 changes of 23 October run permits in parallel, make each park one bonded zone and defer tax on construction gear
• 95% of Korea's chip exports are made in bonded factories, so the customs part touches almost everything
• The fab shell now takes about two years; a new 345 kV line takes about nine, and 26 of 31 big lines are late
• About 15 of 21 GW is agreed for Yongin and Honam, with most of the new supply starting in 2029
• Fab owners and toolmakers gain first; grid builders are paid over years; stuck step: the power line

FAQ

What did Korea announce on 23 October 2026 for chip fabs?
At a regulatory meeting chaired by the president, the trade ministry and other agencies announced 13 changes to cut waiting time in chip megaprojects. Park permits, land compensation and design can run at once; whole chip parks can be one bonded zone; tax on foreign construction gear can be deferred; a working-hours exception for key researchers is under review.

Why does a new power line in Korea take about nine years?
Korea's climate and energy ministry put a new 345 kV line at about nine years in its September grid plan. Most of the time goes on agreeing the route with landowners and residents and on permits; 26 of 31 major lines are 5.5 to 12.5 years late, a lawmaker said at the 19 October audit.

Is this investment advice?
No. Education only. It maps who gets paid and which step is stuck. It is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security, and we leave out share prices, broker ratings and price targets on purpose.

Keep reading on the map

• Korea Markets hub — country page
• SK hynix fab power · Korea power gear · Pohang AI data centre · Customs final ICT · October 1–20 chips
• SK hynix drops the Solidigm IPO · Samsung Electro-Mechanics substrates
• Taiwan glass cloth — the slow input in Taiwan
• NEXTDC Melbourne power · Virginia campus power — the last stretch of wire elsewhere
• SK hynix HBM4 Analysis · Where does the stuck step move?
• Semiconductors on the stack · AI Data Centers on the stack · HBM explained · How hyperscalers buy power
• All Markets doors — Taiwan, Korea, US, China, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia

Not investment advice. Do your own research.

References

1. Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources (MOTIR), Measures to rationalise regulations for the swift implementation of semiconductor megaproject investment (Korean, press reference), 23 Oct 2026. motir.go.kr — the 13 tasks, bonded factory share, permits, tax deferral, R&D hours, support group.
2. The Asia Business Daily, Semiconductor Megaprojects to Be Fast-Tracked; 52-Hour Workweek Exception Also Under Review, 23 Oct 2026. asiae.co.kr — English summary of the measures.
3. Electronic Times (etnews), Honam chip park 6 GW power agreement this year; Yongin 9 GW next year (Korean), 21 Oct 2026. etnews.com — KEPCO audit report: Yongin and Honam power agreements, supply from 2029, KRW113 trillion grid plan.
4. Metro Seoul, Honam chip park 6 GW power plan confirmed this year; Yongin speeds up (Korean), 21 Oct 2026. metroseoul.co.kr — grid build target moved from 2029 to end-2028; completion timed to each fab.
5. Insight Energy News, Audit: Yongin chip park should be reviewed against renewable supply (Korean), 19 Oct 2026. inenews.kr — nine years for a new 345 kV line; 26 of 31 major lines 5.5 to 12.5 years late; 15 circuits needed.
6. The Asia Business Daily, Yongin chip park first zone works start; Samsung fab 1 groundbreaking in 2028 (Korean), 1 Oct 2026. asiae.co.kr — LH timeline cuts, compensation time, six fabs and three power plants.
7. Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, Yongin chip park water supply works begin (Korean), 18 Sep 2026. mcee.go.kr — Paldang pipeline, 310,000 tonnes a day first, 1.072 million tonnes a day in total.
8. Kiho Ilbo, On site at SK hynix's Yongin cluster (Korean), 20 Oct 2026. kihoilbo.co.kr — Y1 progress, February 2027 clean room, Y2 start July 2027, phase-one power and water 99% built.
9. SK hynix Newsroom, Q3 2026 Earnings Conference Call Invitation, 21 Oct 2026. news.skhynix.com — results before 9:00 a.m. Seoul time on 28 October.