As the Lee Jae-myung administration moves quickly to purchase high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) while vowing to become one of the world's top three artificial intelligence (AI) powers, attention is focusing on how they will be procured and allocated. The government plans to secure 50,000 units to build Supercomputer No. 6 and support private-sector research.
According to the government on the 21st, the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of Science and ICT are pursuing a GPU procurement program using the first supplementary budget that passed the National Assembly in May (1.46 trillion won) and the 2026 main budget (2.1 trillion won).
There are three main ways to secure GPUs. The primary method is for the government to "purchase by proxy" through domestic corporations. Using this approach, the government has secured 30% more GPUs than the initial target. In addition, the government plans to secure GPUs through procurement by "corporations awarded government projects" and by "special purpose corporations (SPCs) co-funded by the government and the private sector."
First, under the purchase-by-proxy method, the government selects a proxy purchaser from among cloud corporations through an open call, and those companies import GPUs via bidding. Because GPUs generate significant heat, they require data centers with cooling facilities; rather than building separate infrastructure, the government is utilizing corporations that already have data centers.
The proxy purchasers for the GPU procurement program funded by the first extra budget are Naver Cloud, NHN Cloud, and Kakao—three companies. The government aimed to source 10,000 GPUs through this project, but because purchase prices were lower than expected, it secured 13,000 units. The shipment will arrive in Korea between October and November, and they could be available for use as early as the end of the year.
The government allowed the proxy purchasers to use the additional 3,000 units at their discretion. A government official said this "takes into account that operating a data center also entails considerable expense."
The remaining 10,000 units are for government use. They will be installed in the data centers of the three proxy purchaser companies and made available via the cloud to industry-academia-research stakeholders who pass government review. To allocate these 10,000 units, the government will create a "platform based on an integrated online GPU support system" and communicate with eligible industry-academia-research stakeholders through reviews and other procedures.
The GPU procurement program funded by next year's main budget will proceed in the same manner. The target volume for this project is 15,000 units. Naver Cloud and other previous participants, as well as Coupang, which failed to be selected as a proxy purchaser previously, can take part in the new call.
Of the 50,000 GPUs announced by the government, 10,000 are earmarked for the nation's high-performance computing system (supercomputer) No. 6. The 10,000 units will be procured by Hewlett Packard, the global IT corporation that won the contract to build Supercomputer No. 6. On May 4, the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) and Hewlett Packard signed a 382.5 billion won contract to build Supercomputer No. 6.
Supercomputer No. 6 is scheduled for completion in the first half of next year and will be used for AI training and inference, simulations, large-scale scientific and engineering calculations, and research on ultra-large AI models. Industry-academia-research stakeholders selected through KISTI's project submissions will be able to use Supercomputer No. 6.
The final 15,000 units out of the 50,000 GPUs will go to the National AI Computing Center. The National AI Computing Center is a newly established private-led SPC. It will supply GPUs to domestic small and startup companies, universities, and research institutes.
The government has decided to invest in the National AI Computing Center, with its share planned to be under 30%. More than 70% will be private equity. The government's investment amount will depend on the private capital raised. For example, if the private sector raises 700 billion won, the government will invest 300 billion won. This month, the government launched an open call to recruit private participants to take part in establishing the National AI Computing Center.
Once the center is established, the government will provide support through policy finance loans and other means, and the center will use investments and loans to purchase GPUs. An official at the Ministry of Economy and Finance said, "U.S. private corporations are investing in AI at the scale of hundreds of trillions of won," adding, "These (GPU procurement) measures are about gaining the minimum entry qualification to participate in the AI game."