The government plans to commence services this year for the 'National AI Computing Center,' which is being promoted as a public-private joint investment amid perceptions of a shortage of domestically held computing resources essential for the development of artificial intelligence (AI) models and services, including graphics processing units (GPUs).
The Ministry of Science and ICT announced the establishment plan for the National AI Computing Center at the government-wide meeting on national affairs and economic relations held on the 22nd, detailing specific project promotion plans, including an early start of service in November this year. The National AI Computing Center, which will be located outside the metropolitan area, will be established by a public-private joint special purpose corporation (SPC) with a total investment of 400 billion won, contributed by the public and private sectors in a 51% to 49% ratio. The Industrial Bank of Korea and corporations will invest up to 30% of the SPC's equity (15% each).
Investments of 2 trillion to 2.5 trillion won will be provided through policy finance at low interest rates by 2027. This year, the scale of low-interest loan support is 625 billion won. Initially, the National AI Computing Center will prioritize the import of advanced GPUs from foreign companies such as NVIDIA, gradually increasing the proportion of domestic AI semiconductors to achieve 50% by 2030.
The government has designated the National AI Computing Center, which is said to be located outside the metropolitan area for reasons such as ease of power supply, as a target for expedited processing of power system impact assessments. Specific locations and methods for securing power will be proposed by the private sector. To attract private sector investment and research and development in AI, the government plans to designate the AI field as a national strategic technology under the Restriction of Special Taxation Act.
The tax credit rate for AI research and development will be 30% to 40% for large and medium-sized corporations, and 40% to 50% for small and medium-sized enterprises. The tax deduction rate for investments will be 15% to 25% for large and medium-sized corporations, and 25% to 35% for small and medium-sized enterprises.
The National AI Computing Center aims to be used by domestic universities, research institutes, small and medium-sized enterprises, and startups when developing AI models and services, and will be prioritized for use in the government's AI transformation (AX) project.
The GPU capacity targeted for the National AI Computing Center, established with SPC investment, aims for 1 exaflop (EF, the ability to perform 100 quintillion floating-point operations per second). The government predicts that with additional investments from private companies participating in the SPC, the capacity will reach 2 exaflops. The target participants for the SPC tender include domestic and international cloud and telecommunications companies, and the government has stated it will favor the formation of consortia among multiple cloud and telecommunications providers.
The Ministry of Science and ICT also revealed plans to facilitate the globalization of the domestic AI computing ecosystem by encouraging participation from global corporations and developing specific cooperation measures. The Ministry stated, 'Advanced GPUs and other AI computing infrastructures are becoming a core foundation for the nation in the AI era, with intensified competition among major countries and big tech companies,' explaining the purpose of building the National AI Computing Center.
On the 21st (local time), U.S. President Trump held a press conference at the White House announcing the establishment of a new AI company, 'Stargate,' with a minimum investment of $500 billion (about 718 trillion won) from OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, Japan's SoftBank, and U.S. software company Oracle.