South Korea Selects Texas Power Plant as First Project Under US Investment Plan

South Korea has selected the construction of a large gas-fired power plant in Texas as the first project to be pursued under its $350 billion investment commitment to the United States, according to political sources briefed on the government’s plans.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources presented the proposal during a closed-door meeting of the National Assembly’s trade committee on Tuesday. The briefing followed months of negotiations over how to implement a joint South Korea-US fact sheet that links Seoul’s investment pledges to reduced US import tariffs.

The selection gives the investment package its first concrete project, although key commercial and implementation details have not yet been disclosed. A committee member, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the ministry believes the Texas power project will be profitable.

The government also identified two potential follow-on investments. The second would involve the construction of eight large nuclear reactors in the United States, while the third would support a liquefied natural gas project in Alaska. No details have been finalized for the Alaska proposal, according to the lawmaker.

For the nuclear plan, South Korea is discussing the possibility of acquiring a 5 percent to 10 percent stake in US nuclear energy company Westinghouse. Such an investment could give Korean companies a role in a major US reactor program while tying the broader package to the two countries’ expanding energy and industrial cooperation.

The ministry also outlined financial limits intended to control South Korea’s exposure. The reported conditions state that investments would not move forward if the aggregate amount exceeded $20 billion in a single year or $200 billion overall. Those thresholds indicate that the full $350 billion commitment is not expected to be deployed automatically or without project-level scrutiny.

The Texas project marks an important step in translating the bilateral trade arrangement into specific investments. Its final structure, financing, ownership and construction timeline remain unresolved, however, and the nuclear and Alaska initiatives are still at an earlier stage. Further government and parliamentary review will be needed as Seoul and Washington determine which projects meet the agreed commercial and policy requirements. The next decisions will therefore be closely watched for evidence of how the headline commitment will be divided among individual investments.