Catenaa, Thursday, September 10, 2026- South Korea is nearing the announcement of a major energy investment in the US worth more than $100 billion.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Seoul would fund up to eight nuclear power plants along with a natural gas project aimed at powering America’s artificial intelligence expansion.
An agreement on both deals could come as early as next week, with negotiations now in their final stages.
South Korea is prepared to make an initial payment of more than $2 billion before the end of the month if the deals proceed as planned.
According to the Wall Street Journal, one of the agreements under active negotiation centers on as many as eight nuclear reactors, with US government-owned land among the likely sites for construction.
The first reactors would use the AP1000 design from Westinghouse Electric, a US firm. Some subsequent reactors could use the APR1400 design from South Korean state utility Kepco.
All told, the nuclear component alone could reach tens of billions of dollars, with the outlet reporting that the overall figure might climb past $100 billion.
A separate investment of roughly $20 billion is tied to a natural gas power plant in Texas that would power AI data centers.
South Korea’s trade, industry and resources ministry said no decisions have been made regarding US investments.
The energy investments are part of the broader trade pact that President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung struck last October.
Under that agreement, the US lowered most tariffs on South Korean goods from 25% to 15%, including on automobiles, in exchange for South Korea pledging $350 billion in US manufacturing investments plus $100 billion for American energy purchases. South Korean lawmakers approved the pact in March.
Progress on the investments had stalled, prompting Trump to threaten in January to restore the higher tariffs.
Shipbuilding accounts for roughly $150 billion of the $350 billion total South Korea has committed to investing in the United States. The other $200 billion is directed toward high-priority sectors such as chipmaking, nuclear power and biopharmaceuticals.
The energy deals build on a broader wave of South Korean commitments to the US. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix were set to announce major memory chip supply agreements with leading US technology companies during President Lee Jae Myung’s visit to San Francisco for an AI summit, where he also met with the chief executives of Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Broadcom.
