Samsung SDS consortium said on the 7th that it visited the site of the National AI Computing Center in Haenam, South Jeolla, as its first official external schedule since entering the public bid for the National AI Computing Center.
This visit was the first official on-site schedule carried out jointly by companies participating in the Samsung SDS consortium, with 30 officials from Samsung SDS, Naver Cloud, and South Jeolla Province accompanying. The consortium visited Solaseado, selected as the site for the National AI Computing Center, to directly inspect the planned data center location and comprehensively review the results of the geotechnical survey and surrounding infrastructure conditions, including power and telecommunications.
The National AI Computing Center is a large-scale project with more than 2 trillion won invested, including public-private equity and policy finance loans, and is core infrastructure that provides high-performance computing resources for developing large-scale artificial intelligence (AI) models and processing massive data to corporations, universities, and research institutes. It is being promoted as foundational infrastructure to support the government's strategy to "leap into the world's top three AI powers."
Through the National AI Computing Center, the government plans to secure more than 15,000 advanced graphics processing units (GPUs) by 2028 and continue expanding them through 2030. Through this, it plans to build an AI highway and strengthen the foundation for AI utilization across research and industry.
Since entering the National AI Computing Center construction project alone in Oct. last year, the Samsung SDS consortium has formed a special purpose company (SPC) establishment task force (TF) and carried out preliminary preparations such as establishing the SPC, designing the data center, and planning the project.
The National AI Computing Center project passed the technology and policy evaluation in Nov. last year and is currently undergoing financial review. After the financial review and the selection of a preferred bidder are completed, it plans to proceed with the signing of an implementation agreement and then begin the procedure to establish the special purpose company.
A Samsung SDS consortium official said, "This on-site visit is a preliminary check to ensure the National AI Computing Center is built without a hitch," adding, "We will carefully verify on-site conditions and push the project forward in a stable manner."