Samsung Electronics will reportedly invest an additional eight billion dollars into a memory chip plant in Xian, China.

According to Chinese media and Xian's municipal government on Thursday, Samsung Electronics vice president Kang Bong-yong told Chinese officials that the investment in its second Xian plant has started.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang hinted at the additional investment earlier in October when he said that a total of 15 billion dollars will be spent on the plant that produces NAND flash memory chips. 

The South Korean tech giant earlier announced a plan to invest seven billion dollars into the plant for three years from 2017. 

Industry insiders say the additional eight billion dollar injection will be used to ramp up the plant's production lines by the second half of 2021.