South Korea has unveiled ambitious plans surrounding the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) computing infrastructure in the North East Asian technology powerhouse. These include securing 10,000 Graphics Processor Units (GPUs) by the end of this year, and another 8,000 by the middle of next year.
The country’s AI Computing Infrastructure Special Committee convened recently. In attendance were top government officials such as Choi Sang-mok (Acting President and Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Economy and Finance), Kim Byung-hwan (Chairman of the Financial Services Commission), Kang Do-hyun (2nd Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT) among others. Also present from the private sector were Kim Sung-hoon (CEO, Upstage) and Bae Kyung-hoon (Director, LG AI Research).
Acting President Choi laid out the country’s AI plans saying, “Through public-private cooperation, we will secure 10,000 high-performance GPUs by the end of this year to accelerate the launch of the National AI Computing Center. By the first half of next year, we will establish the Sixth Supercomputer, equipped with 8,000 GPUs, to further support researchers, industry, and academia.”
The Special Committee showed growing awareness surrounding AI adoption and acceleration plans by other technologically savvy economies. In a press release the Committee observed, “The U.S. Stargate Project and France’s AI Data Center Initiative demonstrate that AI computing infrastructure is now a critical benchmark of national AI ecosystem competitiveness.”
Not to be left behind, South Korea wants to build its own robust and reliable AI ecosystem. For this, the Special Committee’s plans envision a public private partnership. South Korea already has a Public Private Partnership Cloud, whereby private corporations lease part of the government’s data center space to provide cloud services targeting administrative and public institutions.
Readers would recall that just last month a 3GW data center was announced in Jeollanam-do province. The project, a collaboration between LG scion Brian Koo, Dr. Amin Badr-El-Din, and Stock Farm Road, in partnership with Jeollanam-do province, is valued at over $10 billion and could reach $35 billion. It is set for completion by 2028. The project’s backers see the center as a catalyst for next-generation AI, capitalizing on a market projected to reach $438.70 billion by 2028.
And just last Sunday, on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025, SK Telecom revealed that it was planning a data center that will house 60,000 Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) with a power consumption capacity of 100 MW. The company aims to expand the facility’s capacity to 1 to 2GW in future, making it one of the biggest data centers in South Korea. Readers would recall that SK Telecom launched its first AI data center in Seoul last year, introducing cloud-based GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS).
South Korea is also focusing on creating a regulatory environment conducive to the growth of AI, and its ethical use. Last December it passed the Basic Act on the Development of Artificial Intelligence and Creation of a Trust Base, popularly referred to as the AI Basic Act. This Act aims to protect the rights and dignity of the people and contribute to improving the quality of life of the people and strengthening national competitiveness by stipulating the basic matters necessary for the sound development of artificial intelligence and establishment of a foundation for trust.
This Act assigns responsibilities to AI developers (who create AI systems) and AI operators (who integrate AI into products or services). The act also places obligations on the government. It is a comprehensive framework for AI regulation and its provisions become effective January 22, 2026.
