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US President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday South Korean investments worth $200 billion in the US energy sector, including $54 billion for a natural gas liquefaction project in Alaska.
In addition to the natural gas liquefaction project in Alaska and the associated pipeline, Trump announced that the US administration intends to establish eight new nuclear power plants and a major natural gas power plant in Texas, with the support of the South Korean government.
Seoul had pledged investments worth $350 billion in the United States and increase its purchases of US energy under a trade agreement signed in July 2025 with Trump, which stipulated the imposition of 15 percent tariffs on South Korean goods exported to the United States.
Trump was joined by senior officials of his administration, including Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and also attended Republican Senator for Alaska Dan Sullivan, who is facing a tough election in November.
The Alaska project involves the construction of an 800-mile pipeline to transport natural gas from the North Slope of Alaska to a liquefaction facility near Anchorage in preparation for export to Asia.
Alaska authorities have previously studied such a project, but did not proceed due to unclear costs and consumer demand for natural gas liquefaction.
The US Department of Commerce said the natural gas power plant in Texas will provide 6,472 megawatts of power to data centers located on the same site in the town of Ensenada, to be fully operational by 2032.
The department added that the nuclear energy clause in the investment agreement allocates $120 billion under a "broad agreement to finalize investment projects in the US nuclear energy sector".
It explained that this amount includes $100 billion for construction costs and $20 billion as an emergency reserve.
It pointed out that $10 billion will be provided for projects by the end of the year.
However, Trump's industrial expansion plans associated with his ambitious energy sector projects may face a shortage of labor, according to experts.
According to a report published on Wednesday by the "Alliance of Skilled Craftsmen in America", an organization that includes major companies such as Ford, Blackstone, and Nvidia, the United States needs to fill about 1.7 million skilled and craft jobs by 2035.
The report concluded that current training programs only graduate 55 workers for every 100 workers needed by the market.
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