Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT Bae Kyung-hoon said on the 29th, "By 2035, we will build 18.4 gigawatts (GW) of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers and pursue investments exceeding 1,000 trillion won in Korea."
Bae announced the AI data center investment plan at the "Korea great leap: three megaprojects national briefing" presided over by President Lee Jae-myung earlier in the day.
Bae described AI data centers as "the heart that makes AI run," stressing the need for large-scale investment.
Bae said, "If robots are the body, physical AI models are the intelligence, data is the blood, and AI data centers are the heart," adding, "The world says it will invest $5.5 trillion (about 8,400 trillion won) in AI data centers over the next five years. This is the largest infrastructure investment in human history." Bae added, "It costs about 60 trillion won to build a 1 GW AI data center, and we view that as the minimum scale."
The government will first pursue investment of 8.4 GW and 550 trillion won in AI data centers by 2029, then add 10 GW by 2035 to create a total of 18.4 GW of AI data centers. The plan is to move away from concentration in the capital region and build them across regions to help revitalize local areas.
Bae also presented localization of data center parts and solutions as a key task. He said, "We will build a cluster ecosystem to create an ultra-large test lab and provide support through workforce development, tax credit, and the Public Growth Fund," adding, "We will also actively promote cooperation between solution corporations and demand corporations through the AI Data Center Alliance."
As a plan to industrialize exports of AI data centers, he emphasized securing cloud capabilities and fostering the domestic AI Semiconductor ecosystem. Bae said, "The AI market is rapidly shifting from training to inference," adding, "Domestic Neural Processing Unit (NPU) corporations such as FuriosaAI, Rebellions, and Mobilint, which have continued research and development for seven to eight years, are moving into commercialization. Please take a close interest in domestic NPU corporations."