Shinsegae Group said on the 17th that it will push to build the largest AI data center in Korea in partnership with U.S. artificial intelligence (AI) corporations Reflection AI.
Reflection AI is a company founded in Feb. 2024 by an AI expert group including CEO Laskin, formerly a core developer at Google DeepMind, and CTO Ioannis Antonglou, one of the key figures behind the development of AlphaGo. It is cited in the United States as a frontrunner in "open-weight AI model development."
At the "strategic partnership MOU for building a Korea sovereign AI factory" event between Shinsegae Group and Reflection AI held in San Francisco on the 16th (local time), Shinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yong-jin and Reflection AI CEO Misha Laskin pledged cooperation.
Shinsegae and Reflection AI plan to build an AI data center in Korea with a power capacity of 250MW. Considering the size of AI data centers built or planned domestically, it is the largest in scale. The project will proceed in stages, sequentially increasing power capacity.
The reason a largest-in-country scale is possible is that they secured GPUs, the core equipment of AI data centers. Reflection AI has agreed to procure from Nvidia the GPUs that will go into the AI data center it is building with Shinsegae.
Based on the large data center, Shinsegae and Reflection AI plan to build a "full-stack AI factory" capable of providing cloud services along with user-customized AI solutions. To that end, Shinsegae and Reflection AI plan to establish a joint venture for the AI factory business within this year.
Shinsegae has moved to build an AI data center to make it a pillar of the group's future growth. It also plans to actively seek synergy with its existing retail business. By leveraging consumer touchpoint infrastructure and data, it aims to implement "differentiated AI commerce" services.
It also plans to pursue management efficiencies, including improving inventory efficiency, through an "AI full stack (Retail AI Full-Stack)." AI full stack refers to vertically integrating the infrastructure and technologies needed to implement and operate artificial intelligence.
Chairman Chung Yong-jin said, "AI will comprehensively transform every field, including future industries and the economy and human life, making future industries without AI unable to survive," and "the data center construction collaboration project with Reflection AI will not only form the foundation of Shinsegae's future growth base but also contribute to advancing the AI ecosystem across domestic industries."
Reflection AI CEO Laskin said, "Korea is a global IT powerhouse and a strong ally of the United States," and "together with Shinsegae, we will create AI infrastructure that Korea can evolve on its own."
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick also attended the two companies' MOU event that day, drawing attention. The partnership between Shinsegae and Reflection AI is the first representative case of technological cooperation through the "AI export program" launched by the U.S. government last year, with the Commerce Department as the lead ministry. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said, "We will actively support the successful progress of the project."