South Korea's industry ministry and SoftBank Group Corp.’s (OTC:SFTBY) (OTC:SFTBF) chip unit, Arm Holdings Plc (NASDAQ:ARM), signed an agreement to boost the country's semiconductor and artificial intelligence sectors, a presidential policy adviser announced Friday.
• ARM Holdings stock is gaining positive traction. Why is ARM stock advancing?
Under the memorandum of understanding, Arm will establish a chip design school in South Korea to leverage its expertise, official Kim Yong-beom told reporters.
The program aims to train roughly 1,400 high-level chip design specialists, strengthening the country's relatively weak system-semiconductor and fabless segments, Reuters reported Friday.
Also Read: Arm Becomes ‘Power-Efficiency Engine’ For AI, Wins Big With Amazon, Google And Meta
Arm licenses its chip designs globally and earns revenue through royalties.
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, who met with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Friday, said rising AI demand will sharply increase chip requirements.
He also highlighted the energy sector as a bottleneck limiting AI development in South Korea.
Son reiterated that AI is poised to surpass human intelligence and that artificial superintelligence could be "10,000 times smarter than people," urging a shift from controlling AI to learning to coexist with it.
South Korea aims to rank among the world's top three AI powers. President Lee has met with global tech leaders, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, to advance the goal.
Nvidia confirmed it will supply more than 260,000 advanced AI chips to the South Korean government and major companies, including Samsung Electronics.
South Korea, U.S. Tariffs: What’s Going On?
South Korea’s geopolitical tensions eased with the U.S. following a tariff rate cut.
In December, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed that the U.S. has cut its general tariff rate on imports from South Korea — including autos — to 15%, activating key provisions of the countries' trade deal after Seoul moved forward with its strategic-investment legislation.
The tariff cut, retroactive to Nov. 1, 2025, aligns Korea's reciprocal rates with those of Japan and the EU and removes U.S. duties on airplane parts.
South Korea's ruling party introduced legislation to honor its $350 billion investment pledge in U.S. sectors such as shipbuilding, a move Lutnick said strengthens mutual trust and deepens the economic partnership supporting U.S. industry and jobs.
The U.S. had previously imposed a 25% tariff on South Korean imports, including Section 232 national-security auto duties and reciprocal tariffs under IEEPA.
In October, Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) Amazon Web Services committed to invest at least $5 billion in South Korea by 2031 to build new AI data centers, AWS CEO Matt Garman announced alongside President Lee at the APEC 2025 summit.
AWS will place the facilities on Seoul's outskirts and fold the investment into a broader $40 billion plan spanning 14 non-U.S. APEC economies through 2028 — a move Garman said will add $45 billion to U.S. GDP and deliver wider regional gains.
Amazon joins six other companies pledging a combined $9 billion over five years as South Korea doubles down on AI infrastructure.
Amazon’s move followed Alibaba Group Holding‘s second Korean data center and OpenAI's partnership with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix to build a dedicated AI facility.
ARM Price Action: Arm Holdings stock is up 1.41% at $142.48 at publication on Friday.
Read Next:
Photo: Shutterstock
