$350 Billion US Investment — No ‘First Project’ Confirmed as of September 7

Correction (2026-09-11): ① We deleted a post-publication update that said the Encinal project had been fixed as the first project on September 7 and agreed at $22.3 billion. On that same day the Ministry of Trade and Industry said officially, “No first project has been confirmed.” ② We now write separately that the 5GW reported for the power plant and the 5GW reported for the data center may refer to different things, and we did not keep the power purchase agreement structure we could not confirm. ③ The phrase “a matter the government has officially denied” in the opening paragraph could be read as the government denying the project itself, so we replaced it with exactly what the Ministry of Trade and Industry actually said. ④ Sources we did not use as evidence for this text are now marked as such. ⑤ We rewrote the sentences in plain language a middle-school student can read, and left the numbers, dates and sources unchanged. The original publication date (2026-08-24) is retained.

The $350 billion investment in the US splits into $200 billion of investment and $150 billion of shipbuilding cooperation investment. We worked out what a cap of up to $20 billion a year actually means. Some reports treated the Encinal project in Texas as the leading candidate, but on September 7 the Ministry of Trade and Industry said no first project had been confirmed.

The $350 billion is not one lump of cash

Look at the explanation of the Korea-US strategic investment memorandum of understanding that the Ministry of Trade and Industry released. The whole $350 billion splits into $200 billion of investment and $150 billion of shipbuilding cooperation investment, which covers direct investment, guarantees and ship finance by Korean companies. The two blocks are not the same, either in how the returns are shared or in how the money is actually spent.

The $200 billion investment comes with a cap: no more than $20 billion is paid in any one year. The point is to ease the strain on the foreign exchange market. The Ministry of Trade and Industry explained the rest like this. When the US says where it wants to invest, the money is paid at least 45 business days later. And it is paid out on request, in step with how far the project has progressed.

In August the “first project” announcement was said to come some time in September — in September it was still not confirmed

Asia Economy reported that on August 20 Kim Jung-kwan, the minister of trade and industry, put the announcement of the first project at some time in September. At that point the Encinal gas-fired combined-cycle power project in Texas was being mentioned as a candidate.

On September 7 Segye Ilbo reported that the Encinal project was the leading candidate, and that a cost of about $22 billion was being talked about. The same article also wrote that it becomes official only once President Trump approves it. The Ministry of Trade and Industry said it could not confirm the details.

So the earlier update — that the figure moved $19.8 billion → $25 billion → $22.3 billion and was finally agreed — and the conclusion that the answer was effectively in, both went beyond the evidence. This piece keeps two things side by side: the candidate the reports named, and the government's position that nothing is confirmed.

Why 5GW appears twice

A Metro Seoul report on July 29 described the power project as 6.4GW in all: 1.4GW of gas turbines plus 5GW of gas-fired combined-cycle generation. A Segye Ilbo report on September 7 wrote that a nearby AI data center is also 5GW in size, separately from the power plant.

The same 5GW may be a number attached to two different facilities. So the sum 1.4 + 5 = 6.4 on its own is not enough to call the data center's 5GW wrong. That said, for this check we could not obtain the project proposal or the text of a power purchase agreement. The make-up of the power plant and the capacity of the data center are each what the reports said had been proposed. They are not confirmed project specifications.

We do not tie the dismissal and the delay together as cause and effect

Reports confirm two things. Yeo Han-koo, Korea's chief trade negotiator, was removed from his post by administrative order as of 00:00 on August 15. And the specific reason for the removal was not made public. The opposition's claims, and the readings heard inside and outside the government, are different interpretations. Because there is no official reason, we cannot join this personnel move and the delay in announcing the first project together as cause and effect.

Documents readers can check from here

• The Ministry of Trade and Industry's announcement confirming a project, and the report to the National Assembly required by law
• Official documents with the total cost of each project, the capacity of the power plant and the data center, and the financing and purchase contracts
• How much has actually been paid under the $20 billion annual cap, and when

Here is what can be confirmed right now. The broad shape of the investment and the payment cap are set out in the official explanation. But on whether Encinal is confirmed as the first project, on its cost and on its detailed specifications, there is still no official material.

For this piece we opened and read the Ministry of Trade and Industry's explanation of the MOU and its press clarification of September 7, 2026. The details about the project and the personnel move are written as the values reported by the dated news articles. We did not guess at a project that is not confirmed, or at a reason for the removal that was never made public. AI tools helped in writing this piece, and it is not investment advice.