The Ministry of Science and ICT said on the 10th it has finally selected the Samsung SDS consortium as the preferred bidder for the project to build the National AI Computing Center.
The Samsung SDS consortium submitted a sole bid last year to the call for proposals to promote a public-private joint special purpose company (SPC) to establish and operate the National AI Computing Center. After technical and policy evaluations and financial reviews by policy finance institutions including Korea Development Bank (Public Growth Fund) and Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK), it was confirmed as the preferred bidder on the day.
Participating in the consortium are Samsung SDS as the lead organization, as well as Naver Cloud, Samsung C&T, Kakao, Samsung Electronics, Clutch, KT, Jeollanam-do, and Southwest Coast Enterprise City Development.
The Samsung SDS consortium proposed the Solaseado Data Center Park in Haenam, South Jeolla, as the project site and aims to build AI computing infrastructure with 15,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) by 2028.
The government plans to support AI computing resources for industry and academia through the National AI Computing Center and to promote wider use of domestically made AI Semiconductor based on Neural Processing Unit (NPU) chips and the revitalization of the domestic AI ecosystem.
The Ministry of Science and ICT, policy finance institutions, and the Samsung SDS consortium plan to discuss details such as the composition and operation of the SPC board and the rights and obligations between the public and private sectors.
The National AI Computing Center is set to break ground in the third quarter this year, with a goal of completing construction by 2028.