SK Announces $22 Billion in New Investments in the U.S. in Semiconductors, Clean Energy, and Bioscience
Investments will create thousands of high-skilled jobs
In a virtual event held with President Joe Biden at the White House, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won announced SK companies will invest an additional $22 billion in critical industries spanning semiconductors, clean energy solutions and life sciences over the next few years. The investments come on top of the $30 billion already committed by the company through 2025 and will create tens of thousands of well-paid American jobs, growing SK’s U.S. workforce from 4,000 today to 20,000 by 2025.
President Joe Biden said it was a historic and path-breaking announcement and unmistakable evidence that the United States and Korea were “winning the technology competition of the 21st century.”
Chairman Chey added that SK fully supported the Biden
administration’s “commitment to strengthening U.S. manufacturing and
innovation and creating quality jobs.”
A significant portion of the announced investment, $15 billion, will support R&D partnerships and the creation of an advanced packaging and testing facility for semiconductors.
SK will also invest about $5 billion to develop clean energy solutions, including ultra-fast electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, green hydrogen production, battery materials, and recycling. This adds to the already announced $7 billion investment SK is making in two new EV battery gigafactories in Kentucky and Tennessee as part of SK’s Blue Oval joint venture with the Ford Motor Company.
These latest investments add to the ongoing investments SK has been making in the U.S., including:
- SK On completion of the first phase of a $2.6 billion investment supporting the construction of two EV battery manufacturing facilities in Georgia.
- SK Siltron CSS’s $300 million expansion of its manufacturing and R&D capacity in Bay County, Michigan, which will double its workforce to nearly 300 employees.
- SK E&S’s
strategic investments in hydrogen energy company Plug Power and energy storage solutions leader Key Capture Energy.
- SK Pharmteco company AMPAC Fine Chemicals’ expansion of its research and manufacturing campus in Petersburg, Virginia, which has doubled production capacity and tripled its employee base to nearly 150 team members.
SK’s U.S. investments are part of the company’s broader double-bottom line mission to generate both social and economic value. Integral to that strategy is a commitment to scale solutions that can improve lives and strengthen our planet.