Korea's National Growth Fund lends Hana Micron $37.5M to close chip gap with Taiwan
What's the deal? Hana MicronDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, South Korea's largest outsourced semiconductor assembly and test company, has secured a US$41.9M (roughly $37.5 million) low-interest loan from the National Growth Fund to expand a test plant for system chips. The Korea Development BankDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, which manages the fund, backed the deal. Hana Micron will add US$16.8M of its own money toward the US$58.7M total project cost.
What's the endgame? The money funds an Asan facility to test mobile application processors for on-device AI, including Samsung Electronics'Dealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → Exynos 2700, with operations targeted for 2028. The goal is to strengthen South Korea's weaker chip "back end" — packaging and testing — as AI demand strains capacity.
Why now? Volatile markets made conventional financing hard. Government bond yields are rising, and corporate bonds and bank loans must be rolled over periodically, making them unsuitable for investments with horizons of a decade or more.
"The National Growth Fund decides the size, maturity and rate based on securing competitiveness in core national industries rather than on risk or returns, so it was the best option from the company's standpoint," said Park Sang-mook, Hana Micron's chief financial officer. The loan carries a rate close to government bond yields, with a three-year grace period followed by repayment over seven years.
Why it matters: At roughly $37.5 million, the loan ranks near the bottom of comparable deals — its size sits in the 11th percentile. That reflects its nature as targeted industrial policy rather than a large corporate raise.
"The global advanced packaging market has entered a phase of real growth as demand expands from AI data centers and high-performance computing," said Kim Hwi-jong, head of Hana Micron's finance group. "We decided on a medium- to long-term investment because this is no longer simple contract processing but a high-value industry that determines the performance of the finished chip."
The Financial Services Commission said it would "strengthen advanced chip back-end capabilities through support for Hana Micron and raise the competitiveness of the domestic semiconductor value chain."
The signal: The loan is modest beside Taiwan's corporate spending — ASE, the world's largest packaging-and-testing provider, lifted its 2026 capex to $11.5 billion, while SPILDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → is investing US$2.89B in a new advanced-packaging plant. South Korea is betting that targeted state support can narrow a specific supply-chain gap, but the facility's impact will hinge on execution and demand.
Read more: en.sedaily.com
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
