Samsung, SK Hynix Reject KEPCO's $18.7B Grid Prepayment Ask

Korea Electric Power Corp asked Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix to prepay five years of electricity bills, a combined 25 trillion won or roughly $18.7 billion, and both chipmakers said no.

The proposal split the ask between them: about 20 trillion won from Samsung, around 5 trillion won from SK Hynix, matching roughly five years of each company's power charges based on their payments last year. Reuters reported the rejection after obtaining a document shared with it by the office of South Korean lawmaker Lee Chul-gyu.

The chipmakers told the state-run utility it would be "difficult to accept the proposal following internal reviews," citing uncertainty over the long-term durability of semiconductor demand.

KEPCO had planned to use the money primarily to invest in the national power grid, accelerating the electricity infrastructure needed for semiconductor mega-clusters in Yongin and the Honam region. Those clusters underpin the country's AI-chip capacity plans; South Korean chip exports hit a record $46.65 billion in August, and grid capacity is the physical constraint on running more fabs.

Samsung and SK Hynix concluded that committing tens of trillions of won at once was difficult given the market outlook and their own investment plans.