Korea and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) agreed to jointly promote the "Stargate Project," an artificial intelligence (AI) cluster construction project worth more than 30 trillion won.
The presidential office said on the 18th that, on the occasion of President Lee Jae-myung's state visit to the UAE, the two sides concluded an exchange cooperation through the "Korea-UAE expanded talks" to comprehensively strengthen cooperation in the AI field.
The UAE Stargate Project is a project to build an AI data center cluster with a capacity of up to 5 gigawatts (GW) in Abu Dhabi. The first 200-megawatt (MW) class AI cluster is planned to start operating next year. The initial investment alone is about 30 trillion won.
The government said that for Korea, which aims to be the "AI capital of Asia," to lead the global market, strategic cooperation with major countries is important, and that, as a first step, it will promote cooperation with the UAE in AI and energy.
As part of that, the Presidential Committee on AI and the Abu Dhabi Advanced Technology Council (AIATC) agreed to conclude a "strategic AI cooperation framework" and to pursue comprehensive cooperation between the two countries in the AI field.
Accordingly, the two countries will cooperate on AI investment and infrastructure construction, expansion of AI supply chains, acceleration of the adoption of AI and advanced technologies, and research and development in AI. They will also jointly pursue large-scale projects for mutual prosperity and development.
As the first project, they will promote an "energy mix-based hyperscale AI data center project." To build a large-scale AI data center in the UAE and operate it stably, they will establish a power grid that utilizes nuclear power, gas, and renewable energy together, while expanding cooperation to the semiconductor supply chain.
The Ministry of Science and ICT said that participation in the UAE Stargate Project is expected to give domestic corporations with experience in AI Start - Up and AI data centers an opportunity to participate in the global market.
The two countries will also jointly promote a port and logistics project based on physical AI. They plan to cooperate in implementing automated and intelligent ports by leveraging domestic experience operating fully automated terminals and data-based physical AI. They also plan to pursue a joint project to conduct demonstrations and verification by using Busan Port and Abu Dhabi's Khalifa Port as test-bed ports.
The Ministry of Science and ICT signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the UAE minister of state for artificial intelligence to support exchanges among research institutions, corporations, and experts to expand cooperation between the two countries in AI, and to promote private-sector exchanges and AI investment. The Ministry of Science and ICT and the UAE side agreed to establish and operate a Director General-level AI policy council.
President Lee Jae-myung said at the expanded talks that "the UAE is a country that has a special strategic partnership with Korea," adding, "I hope that this visit will make the cooperative relationship between Korea and the UAE broader, deeper, and more special." Lee said, "Based on the special friendship we have built so far, the relationship between the two countries will make a fresh leap to a higher level."