We will put the pedal to the metal this year on AI infrastructure, homegrown semiconductors, and regional AX (AI transformation) industries to drive digital innovation.
Park Yun-gyu, head of the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA), stated accordingly at a 2026 business briefing held at EL Tower in Yangjae, Seoul, on the 21st. NIPA plans to provide all-around support this year, from AI infrastructure and industrial transformation to nurturing homegrown AI Semiconductor, building regional AI industry ecosystems, and overseas expansion, based on a total budget of 3.1223 trillion won.
That day, NIPA unveiled the direction of 92 support projects under the slogan "An unrelenting push toward the AI top 3 (G3), your NIce PArtner." Park said the global AI industry has reached an inflection point where it is being asked to move beyond technical realization to generate tangible revenue, adding that growing the market ecosystem from infrastructure and models to services is the core of national competitiveness.
Park first addressed easing the bottleneck in "compute resources." Park said NIPA will sharply increase support for high-performance computing resources and infrastructure so corporations can develop and advance AI models. After securing about 13,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) last year, NIPA will secure an additional 15,000 this year so industry, academia, and research institutes can use them. Park added that NIPA will back the establishment of a special purpose company (SPC) and the start of construction for the National AI Computing Center so they proceed without a hitch.
For homegrown AI Semiconductor, the plan is to lower reliance on foreign products through "full lifecycle" support. Park said NIPA will raise hardware competitiveness by supporting the full lifecycle from design to validation for homegrown AI Semiconductor, and will simultaneously expand AI infrastructure and secure hardware competitiveness to firm up the base for technological sovereignty.
The spread of AX across industries will focus on lowering expense and entry barriers for AI demand-side corporations. Park said NIPA will reduce the burden experienced during AI solution adoption and support improvements that lead to actual service quality gains and shorter development time. Park added that the importance of software in the AI era will be further emphasized, and since the domestic sector is effectively in a slump, government-level measures are needed and NIPA will consult with the Ministry of Science and ICT.
NIPA will also push to develop industrial on-site services such as agentic AI and to support the spread of open-source software in the public and private sectors. As a new pillar this year, NIPA put physical AI front and center. Park said NIPA will kick off building Korean-style AI factories based on physical AI in North Jeolla and South Gyeongsang. By 2030, NIPA plans to inject 1 trillion won in each of the two regions to target both industrial on-site validation and diffusion at the same time. In tandem with balanced regional development, "regional AX" will also proceed to support digital transformation of regionally specialized industries and activation of an ecosystem centered on innovation hubs.
NIPA also emphasized support for overseas expansion. Park said NIPA will strengthen cooperation with strategic regions such as ASEAN and increase opportunities for local proof of concept (PoC) to build an overseas expansion pipeline, and will also speed up building an Asia-Pacific AI hub and attracting overseas talent and corporations to secure global leadership. On the institutional front, NIPA will help innovative products and services take root in the market through regulatory sandboxes and policy planning, and will also promote creating a "trustworthy AI" environment based on safe and ethical use.
NIPA will also refine how projects are executed. Park said NIPA will broaden the focus from technology-centered evaluations to "market, investment, and growth" and more strictly assess follow-on investment potential and business feasibility. Park said 2026 will be a year of sorting the wheat from the chaff, where past AI investments are proven as business outcomes, and that NIPA will play the role of a growth ladder for corporations by supporting a Korean-style artificial intelligence (K-AI) full stack that combines advanced AI infrastructure with homegrown models.