Hanmi Semiconductor Bets 50 Billion Won on SpaceX: "Investment in Future Growth Potential"

Scheduled for Open Market Purchase on June 16

On June 12, Hanmi Semiconductor announced that it will purchase SpaceX shares worth 50 billion won ahead of SpaceX’s upcoming listing.

Hanmi Semiconductor disclosed on the same day that it plans to acquire SpaceX shares worth 50 billion won through the open market. This amount represents 7.24% of the company’s equity capital, and the scheduled acquisition date is June 16. In its disclosure, Hanmi Semiconductor explained, “This is an investment in the future growth potential of Elon Musk’s Terafab and SpaceX, driven by the explosive demand for AI, satellite communications, aerospace, and advanced semiconductors.”

Hanmi Semiconductor.

SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, is the world’s largest private space company. Through its rocket technology and Starlink satellite communication service, it has rapidly emerged as a core infrastructure company in the AI era.

Additionally, Elon Musk plans to address the shortage of AI semiconductors for SpaceX, Tesla, and xAI by investing 119 billion dollars (approximately 177 trillion won) to directly produce semiconductors at an “ultra-large-scale Terafab” in Austin, Texas, starting in 2028. About 80% of the semiconductors produced at Terafab will be used for SpaceX’s aerospace and data centers, with the remainder allocated to Tesla’s autonomous vehicles and Optimus robots.

The long-standing relationship between Dongshin Kwak, Chairman of Hanmi Semiconductor, and Peter Thiel, founder of Palantir, is also a background factor in this SpaceX investment. Peter Thiel, who co-founded PayPal with Elon Musk, is an early investor in SpaceX, Facebook, and LinkedIn. In 2013, Crescendo Equity Partners, a global private equity fund established by Peter Thiel, became the first to invest in Hanmi Semiconductor among Korean companies, forging a connection with Chairman Kwak. In 2021, Hanmi Semiconductor and Chairman Kwak each invested 37.5 billion won (for a total of 75 billion won) in the semiconductor equipment company HPSP, realizing a cumulative investment return of 479.5 billion won, which is 639.3% of the initial principal.

A representative of Hanmi Semiconductor stated, “We have decided to invest in SpaceX, a joint operator of the Elon Musk Terafab project, in line with the trend of the AI industry’s expansion beyond semiconductors and data centers to aerospace and satellite communication data industries.” The representative added, “We plan to reinvest the expected investment returns into our core semiconductor equipment business to promote sustainable growth and simultaneously enhance both corporate and shareholder value.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.