The creation of the “National AI Computing Center,” an AI highway to strengthen South Korea's artificial intelligence (AI) technology competitiveness and expand AI services, begins in earnest.
The Ministry of Science and ICT held a groundbreaking ceremony for the National AI Computing Center on the 3rd at the Solaseado Data Center Park site in Haenam County, Gwangju, South Jeolla Province. As a core infrastructure of the AI highway, the National AI Computing Center will secure state-of-the-art AI computing resources and establish an environment for AI research, development, and services.
Aiming for completion and operation in 2028, a total project cost of KRW2.5 trillion will be invested to build a two-story facility on a site of approximately 48,000 square meters. Following last year's operator call for proposals, Samsung SDS formed a consortium with Naver Cloud, Samsung C&T, Samsung Electronics, Kakao, KT, Gwangju City/South Jeolla Province, and Southwest Coast Enterprise City Development to submit a sole bid, and was selected as the project operator following technical and financial evaluations.
In June this year, “Korea AI Computing Center (KOACC),” a special purpose company (SPC) for establishing and operating the National AI Computing Center, was launched as a public-private joint venture. Samsung SDS is the largest shareholder with a 30% stake, while the government—including the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Financial Services Commission, and the National Growth Fund—holds 29%, and Naver Cloud holds 26.1%.
KOACC takes full charge of constructing and operating the National AI Computing Center. Electricity and water required for future center operations have also been secured. It received approval from Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) for 40MW of electricity usage and is preparing infrastructure such as water intake pipeline construction. New building construction and facility construction for operating high-performance AI servers will be carried out concurrently. Ahn Jeong-tae, former vice president and chief financial officer (CFO) of Samsung SDS, was appointed as the chief executive officer (CEO).
Some of the AI computing resources scheduled to be built at the National AI Computing Center will be provided early through the Samsung SDS Data Center next year. This is to respond to urgent domestic AI computing infrastructure demand across industry, academia, and research institutes.
Lee, CEO of Samsung SDS, said, “We will build AI infrastructure with the highest performance and efficiency that can respond rapidly to global technological changes,” adding, “As the largest shareholder of Korea AI Computing Center, we will maximize the synergy of public-private AI cooperation and do our best to ensure that talent for AI data centers gathers and an industrial ecosystem is formed centered around Haenam and Gwangju, South Jeolla Province.”
The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to provide world-class AI computing infrastructure at reasonable prices through the construction of the National AI Computing Center. It will also support the revitalization of the domestic AI ecosystem by actively responding to government AI innovation demand, such as public AI transformation (AX).
In addition, the ministry plans to create a research and development zone (R&D Zone) based on the center to provide a verification environment for designing and developing prototypes of domestic AI semiconductors, represented by neural processing units (NPUs). The idea is to lead the activation of domestic AI semiconductors through the commercial service operation of products with verified performance.
Bae, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT, emphasized, “The establishment of the National AI Computing Center will create an opportunity where people no longer worry about domestic AI infrastructure,” adding, “We plan to secure cutting-edge GPUs and activate domestic AI semiconductors simultaneously through public-private cooperation, contributing to securing AI full-stack competitiveness and leaping forward as an 'Asian AI infrastructure hub.'”
Democratic Party of Korea lawmakers Park Jie-won, Ahn Do-geol, and Han Jun-ho, Min Hyung-bae, Mayor of Gwangju, South Jeolla Province, and Kim Yu-won, CEO of Naver Cloud, among others, also attended the groundbreaking ceremony that day.
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