---
title: "Trump says South Korea will invest up to $200 billion. Seoul says only one project is finalized."
url: "https://etf.net/news/trump-says-south-korea-will-invest-up-to-200-billion-seoul-says-only-one-project-is-finalized-2026-09-30"
published_at: "2026-10-01T00:07:23.482Z"
updated_at: "2026-10-01T00:07:23.482Z"
byline: "ETF.net Research"
---

# Trump says South Korea will invest up to $200 billion. Seoul says only one project is finalized.

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, September 30 that South Korea will invest up to $200 billion in US energy projects, but Seoul says only a $22.3 billion gas plant in Texas has been finalized.

By ETF.net Research. Published Oct 1, 2026.

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that South Korea will invest up to **$200 billion** in US energy, naming a gas plant in Texas, eight nuclear plants and a project to export natural gas from Alaska.

He called the plans "a major step toward securing our critical energy supply chain, ensuring American energy dominance and making our partnership with South Korea and the entire Pacific region stronger than ever before."

The figure is a ceiling, not cash that has been sent. A joint fact sheet from the Commerce Department and the Korean government says the announcements are the direct result of a $350 billion trade deal announced on July 30, 2025.

Of that sum, $150 billion is for shipbuilding. The other $200 billion was already pledged for major investments. These energy plans are that share, not a new promise on top of the deal.

South Korea's government believes only the Texas plant has been finalized, and that the nuclear plants and the Alaska project still need more discussion.

On September 22, Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan told parliament that this share will not exceed $200 billion, and that the cash going out is capped at $20 billion a year.

## The Texas plant is the one with a builder

The plant is Project Star, in Encinal, Texas. The fact sheet lists the cost at **$22.3 billion**. It would be a gas-fired plant with 6.47 gigawatts of capacity, the measure of how much electricity it could produce at full power.

The two governments selected Related Companies and NextEra Energy Resources, the development arm of the US power company NextEra Energy, to develop the plant with Lewis Energy Group, which is to provide the land and the gas. NextEra and Related plan to build and operate the generators. NextEra said the power project will be owned jointly by South Korea and the United States under the trade agreement, and built and run by that team.

The release does not describe a completed financing, and it does not say how much cash either government has paid in. First power, NextEra says, could come as early as 2029, and only if the permits are approved. The fact sheet lists full capacity in 2032.

The neighboring data centers are a separate project. Related Digital is developing a 5-gigawatt site next door with private money, and the plant would send any extra power to the public grid.

## The other two projects are still plans

Project Power, the nuclear effort, is a blueprint for eight plants, not eight construction starts. The fact sheet describes two reactors of a South Korean design and six from Westinghouse Electric, at sites still to be named. It puts the funding at $120 billion, including $100 billion to build and $20 billion set aside in case costs rise. Sites, schedules and commercial terms are to be announced later.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick named four states for the plants: Ohio, Tennessee, South Carolina and Kentucky. He named states, not eight plant sites.

The nearest cash date is a $10 billion early payment for the nuclear plants. The two governments have agreed to cooperate on transferring it by the end of 2026, mainly to order equipment that takes years to make. The fact sheet does not say the money has been sent, and it ties the transfer to legal requirements. A minority stake in Westinghouse for Korean companies is still to be decided.

On the Alaska project, called Project North, the fact sheet says the two governments have agreed to start working if the numbers still make business sense under their investment agreement, and under the law. The United States intends, where it can, to offer assurances on prices that would make the project workable, and to give Korea priority access to the gas. That is not a signed contract to buy it.

Lutnick described more than $50 billion for Alaska. A White House official put the plan at about $54 billion. The fact sheet assigns South Korea no dollar figure for the project.

Kim called the Alaska project a "high-risk business" in parliament in November 2025.

The Texas plant now has a builder and a plan for the two governments to own it together. The $200 billion has not been sent, and the nuclear plants and the Alaska project are not settled.

Source: etf.net, https://etf.net/news/trump-says-south-korea-will-invest-up-to-200-billion-seoul-says-only-one-project-is-finalized-2026-09-30. Please cite the page URL.