South Korea

Seoul wants to double the country's DRAM capacity within five years and turn Korea from the world's biggest robot user into a leading robot maker. Samsung alone pledged about 1,000 trillion won over ten years across chips, AI data centers, and what the plan calls 'physical AI'.

One commenter read the bundle as groceries plus dance lessons: memory is an essential commodity, humanoids a sexy bet that may or may not pay off. Others tied the robot urgency to Korea's looming demographic cliff.

Korean systems run 40-60% cheaper unit for unit: K9 at ~$3.5-4M vs Paladin ~$8M, Chunmoo MLRS ~$2M vs HIMARS ~$4.5M, 155mm shells ~$2k vs ~$3.5k. Seoul fields 2,780 self-propelled guns, third in the world.

The self-reliance traces to Vietnam, where Korean troops carried WW2 rifles and a frustrated President Park spun up a domestic defense agency.