The project in Encinal, Texas, with an investment of around US$22 billion, would have a total capacity of 6.3 gigawatts and would start with 1.4 GW of gas-turbine generation before adding 4.9 GW of combined-cycle capacity, Yonhap News and other Korean media outlets reported. It would help meet surging electricity demand from artificial-intelligence data centres.
The South Korean government has refrained from disclosing details of projects and said on Monday it won’t announce anything until it finishes a process that includes reporting to the National Assembly. Media reports said the administration will brief parliament on the investment negotiations on Sept 17 and may sign an MOU as soon as Sept 18.
The expected signing of the deal comes nearly a year after the two countries struck an initial trade deal that set US tariffs on South Korean exports at 15%. Seoul pledged to invest US$350 billion in the US as part of the agreement, but delays in identifying the first project drew criticism from US President Donald Trump, who threatened to raise tariffs on Korean goods to as high as 25%.
The selection marks an important step towards turning Seoul’s headline investment pledge into actual projects and could therefore remove a persistent source of friction with Washington.
In a last-minute twist, the US has asked South Korea to submit investment projects whose combined value exceeds the previously agreed US$350 billion, Yonhap reported, citing unidentified parliamentary officials. Seoul is in talks with the US to ensure its actual commitment doesn’t exceed US$350 billion, the report added.
South Korea denied that part of the Yonhap report.
“It is not true that the US side has requested investments exceeding US$350 billion,” South Korea’s Industry Ministry said in a statement late Tuesday. “Under the strategic investment MOU, total investment in the US will not exceed US$200 billion under any circumstances, and the annual remittance limit will not exceed US$20 billion.”
It added that the scale and timing of the initial remittance have not been confirmed.
Other investment proposals South Korea is considering include eight large nuclear reactors and the Alaska LNG project, Yonhap added.
South Korea’s investment pledge mirrors a similar commitment by neighbouring Japan to avert higher US tariffs, though Tokyo has moved more quickly to put its US$550 billion plan into action. Japan’s first batch of projects envisages US$36 billion of investment in US oil, gas and critical-minerals projects, including a natural gas facility in Ohio.
A second group calls for US$73 billion in investment in a nuclear power project spanning Tennessee and Alabama and natural gas power plants in Pennsylvania and Texas.
The Industry Ministry statement said that while South Korea and the US are engaged in various discussions regarding cooperation on nuclear power plant investments, no specific details have been determined.
South Korea’s parliament approved special legislation in March to implement the US investment commitment, hours after the Trump administration sought new legal grounds to impose tariffs on Seoul.
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