South Korea is making a serious push to steer within the world synthetic intelligence (AI) race with a method that resembles wartime-level mobilization. As a part of this effort, President Lee Jae-myung has appointed Ha Jung-woo, the pinnacle of Naver’s AI Innovation Heart, because the nation’s first-ever chief secretary for AI coverage. A brand new devoted AI unit may also be created inside the presidential workplace to assist this position and information national-level AI initiatives.
South Korea’s AI technique is a large 100 trillion received (US$735 billion) funding aimed toward constructing a “sovereign AI” skilled completely on the Korean language, tradition, and historic information. The aim is to develop an AI mannequin that actually represents the nation’s id whereas boosting home innovation and decreasing reliance on overseas applied sciences.
President Lee has persistently underlined the significance of synthetic intelligence as a nationwide precedence, making the 100 trillion received ($735 billion) funding pledge a key marketing campaign promise. His imaginative and prescient of a sovereign AI, constructed on Korean language and cultural knowledge, is now being put into motion.
Ha, a longtime advocate of the concept, has careworn the necessity for Korea to regulate its personal AI improvement and scale back its dependence on overseas techniques. He has proposed that the federal government again a number of nationwide AI champions with important infrastructure, together with not less than 5,000 GPUs every.
Ha, who heads Naver’s Future AI Centre, helps a collaborative public-private method to AI improvement. On this mannequin, the federal government would supply infrastructure assist whereas personal firms would develop the know-how. The aim is to make sovereign AI techniques extensively accessible by releasing them as open-source instruments. This technique aligns with South Korea’s broader digital targets and will assist spur innovation throughout sectors. Following the announcement, investor confidence rose sharply, with inventory markets responding positively over consecutive days.
These current developments construct on earlier momentum in Korea’s AI infrastructure plans. In February 2025, a $10 billion undertaking for a large 3-gigawatt knowledge heart in Jeollanam-do was unveiled, with backing from outstanding traders and plans to broaden to $35 billion by 2028.
Regardless of the daring scale of President Lee’s proposed 100 trillion-won AI initiative, critics observe that the plan lacks readability on funding sources and execution. Business stakeholders have raised considerations over how the federal government will allocate such a big sum and which sectors will profit most.
Specialists recommend that for the funding to ship actual worth, it ought to concentrate on strategic areas the place Korea already has a aggressive edge, notably in semiconductors and biotechnology. Focused functions of sovereign AI in these sectors might enhance nationwide competitiveness and assist financial progress.
In the meantime, the SK Group has shared extra particulars about its upcoming AI knowledge heart in Ulsan, which is being developed collectively with AWS. The undertaking might be rolled out in levels, beginning with a 41-megawatt facility scheduled for completion by November 2027.
A second section, anticipated by February 2029, will broaden the capability to 103 megawatts. It follows SK Telecom’s earlier efforts, together with the launch of its first AI knowledge heart in Seoul, which affords GPU-as-a-Service to assist the rising demand for computing energy.
