North Gyeongsang adds a 175 billion won hemp drug chain in Andong to its 1.5 trillion won foundry plan

Two of the four foundries now have figures attached, and together they account for under a quarter of the money. Andong's 175 billion won ^[4] and Pohang's roughly 180 billion won ^[9] add to 355 billion won, about 24% of the 1.5 trillion won plan ^[1][14]. Andong has the smallest disclosed figure, or rather, since Pohang's number is approximate, it is roughly tied with Pohang ^[4][9]. That leaves about 1.15 trillion won, some 76% of the total, for Gumi, where the province is pursuing both a quantum foundry and a chip foundry ^[15][7][11]. The chip plant is the expected largest of the four ^[12]. If the 1.5 trillion won is the sum of the four budgets, that plant needs at least about 570 billion won, more than Andong and Pohang combined ^[16].

Pohang's money comes in two pieces. The first phase is 40 billion won for lines that make and contract-manufacture collaborative and humanoid robots, with groundbreaking targeted for next month. A 140 billion won second phase follows ^[10]. The first tranche is about 22% of the project ^[17].

The pooled structure is meant to lower companies' initial investment burden and risk ^[2]. Whether it does depends on who takes the first loss inside the pool. The province did not disclose how any foundry's funding divides among its own capital, private funds and policy financing. Should provincial money and policy lenders sit beneath the private funds, tenants get cheaper entry and the public side owns the risk of empty lines. If private funds and anchor companies put up most of the capital instead, the co-investment structure changes little about who pays when a line runs below capacity. A third outcome sits outside the funding split: Gumi's chip plant fills while the smaller bio and robot sites run under capacity, and the totals hide the weak sites. We think the structure does lower entry costs for companies that rent capacity. A funding split in which companies still supply most of the money would prove that wrong.

The vice governor's own description keeps companies in the fundraising. Yang Kum-hee, vice governor for economic affairs, said the province will "push ahead quickly with the four foundries through a co-investment approach in which local government joins companies in raising funds and connects them to policy financing." ^[13]

Andong's project starts at the farm. It covers hemp growing, the manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished drugs, and quality and safety management ^[4]. Cultivation sites and drug plants would be linked into one local production system ^[6]. The hemp is cannabis with less than 0.3% THC, the psychoactive compound, and is the source of cannabidiol, a compound used in treating conditions such as epilepsy ^[5].