The introduction project of the supercomputer No. 6 has entered normal orbit after five failures and six attempts. The supercomputer No. 6 is a key piece of equipment in the government's plan to build an artificial intelligence (AI) computing infrastructure.
According to the Public Procurement Service's electronic procurement system and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) on the 18th, it was reported that two corporations participated in the bidding for the construction of supercomputer No. 6 on that day. In the bidding announcement held on the 6th, only one corporation participated, resulting in a failure, but this time two corporations participated, leading to a competitive bidding.
A KISTI official said, "We plan to select a contractor by the end of April, sign a contract, and install the equipment by the end of this year, with services expected to commence in the first half of next year."
The supercomputer No. 6 introduction project has failed five times due to budget shortages. In the four bidding announcements held last year, not a single corporation participated, and the bidding announcement on the 6th was also unsuccessful due to a sole bid.
The government reflected a budget of 292.9 billion won for the supercomputer No. 6 introduction project in 2022, but with the emergence of ChatGPT at the end of 2023, the prices of GPUs (graphics processing units) skyrocketed. The budget allocated in 2022 was insufficient to secure the necessary 8,800 GPUs for supercomputer No. 6, causing the project to be delayed.
After the government reviewed the appropriateness of the preliminary feasibility study last year and raised the budget for supercomputer No. 6 to 448.3 billion won, the project has finally normalized.