Samsung Electronics plans to invest 39 trillion dong ($1.5 billion) in Vietnam to build its first semiconductor testing facility in the country, according to a proposal document sent to local authorities in April and reviewed by Reuters. Construction has already begun at an industrial park in Thai Nguyen province, roughly 60 kilometers north of Hanoi, adjacent to an existing Samsung complex that assembles smartphones and tablets. The factory is slated to start operations in November 2027 and will focus on testing legacy DRAM and NAND memory chips, with annual capacity to handle 153.3 billion gigabits of DRAM and 255.6 billion gigabits of NAND, according to the document submitted to obtain environmental permits. More than 200 Samsung engineers and staff have been working on the site since at least April, according to a person briefed on the matter, and Reuters reporters observed active heavy construction during a site visit this week. The Vietnamese government approved the investment in March. The document also indicates Samsung intends to reinvest profits — if any — of up to approximately $2.5 billion for a potential second factory on the same site.
The expansion reflects acute pressure on the global memory chip supply chain: AI data center operators have driven DRAM and NAND demand to record levels, pushing major producers including Samsung to dedicate more capacity to high-bandwidth memory and AI-focused chips, which in turn has left conventional memory for smartphones, laptops, and automobiles in severe shortage. Testing — the final stage of chipmaking, where packaged semiconductors are inspected for defects before shipment — is a particular bottleneck, and Vietnam’s labor cost advantage makes it an attractive location to scale that capacity. Samsung is already Vietnam’s largest foreign investor with over $23 billion committed across multiple facilities, and the country also hosts back-end semiconductor operations for Intel, Amkor Technology, and Hana Micron. Samsung did not immediately respond to a request for comment.