* President Lee says projects to secure overwhelming

industrial strength

* Investments could exceed $650 billion, media say

* Expected southwest chip hub plan aims to ease Seoul-area

concentration

* Leaders of world's two largest memory chip makers join

announcement

* Critics question infrastructure, skilled labour and

political motives behind the plan

(Adds quote in paragraph 3, details in paragraphs 4-5)

By Joyce Lee

SEOUL, June 29 (Reuters) - South Korea rolled out sweeping

chip and AI mega-projects on Monday, as President Lee Jae Myung

pledged to cement overwhelming industry leadership with

investments spanning hundreds of billions of dollars over

several years.

The announcement marks Lee's boldest push yet to align South

Korea's AI and chip ambitions with his pledge to narrow regional

disparities and revive economies beyond the Seoul metropolitan

area.

Lee was joined by the leaders of Samsung Electronics ( SSNLF )

and SK Hynix, the world's two largest

memory chipmakers, for the televised announcement.

"We must secure the core elements of AI faster than any

other country," the president said. "Semiconductors, physical

AI, and AI data centres are the triple axis for a our great leap

forward."

The projects are expected to attract investments including

by Samsung and SK over the next several years. Lee said the

country's southwestern city of Gwangju and South Jeolla province

will also invest 520 trillion won ($336.70 billion) in the

projects.

As part of the overall initiative, the southwest would be

the home to new massive chip production clusters, Lee said, in

part to utilize the rich power resources yet untapped there.

Local media have reported the planned investments could

exceed 1,000 trillion won ($651.41 billion) over coming years.

($1 = 1,544.3800 won)