Computer chips are very important today. Companies around the world are working hard to make better chips. This is because artificial intelligence (AI) needs very powerful chips to work. The chip market was worth over $600 billion in 2025.
Two big companies make most of the world's chips. Samsung Electronics is from South Korea. TSMC, or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, is from Taiwan. Both companies are spending billions of dollars to build new factories.
Big technology companies like OpenAI, Google, and Meta need chips for their AI systems. AI server demand grew more than 40% in 2025. This means chip makers must produce more chips than before.
One important type of chip is called HBM, or High Bandwidth Memory. HBM chips help computers handle large amounts of data very quickly. AI systems need these chips to learn and work well. Chips are made from a material called silicon, which can carry electricity. We call these chips semiconductors.
Samsung plans to spend more than $300 billion on chip production by 2042. The company is also making new 2nm chips. These chips have very small circuits. Smaller circuits make chips faster and use less energy.
TSMC makes chips for other companies, including NVIDIA, which designs AI chips. TSMC is building new factories in Arizona, USA and Kumamoto, Japan. The US government has given $52.7 billion to help chip companies build factories in America.
Another Korean company, SK Hynix, holds more than 50% of the HBM market. South Korea's chip industry is very important for its economy. Chips are used in phones, cars, and many other everyday products.