The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on May 11 that the Samsung SDS Consortium has been selected as the private partner for the establishment of the National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Computing Center. The ministry plans to invest a total of 2.5 trillion won (approximately $2 billion) through a public-private partnership special purpose company (SPC) to build a national AI infrastructure capable of supporting 15,000 advanced AI semiconductors by 2028.
The consortium includes Samsung SDS, Naver Cloud, Samsung C&T, Kakao, Samsung Electronics, KT, Clush, Jeollanam-do, and the Southwest Coast Enterprise City Development. The government conducted a public bidding process from September to October last year, with the Samsung SDS Consortium being the sole bidder. After undergoing technical and policy evaluations and financial reviews, the consortium was selected as the preferred negotiation partner in March.
The funding procedures have also been finalized. Last month, the National Growth Fund's investment committee approved the SPC's funding for the National AI Computing Center project, confirming an initial investment of 400 billion won, which includes 116 billion won from public sources and 284 billion won from private sources.
On the same day, the ministry signed an agreement for the project plan and a shareholder agreement for the establishment and operation of the SPC. The government and the consortium plan to establish the SPC in the second quarter of this year and begin construction of the center in the third quarter. Additional funding will be secured to gradually build the AI computing center, reaching a total investment of 2.5 trillion won.
The National AI Computing Center aims to provide high-performance AI computing resources to domestic companies and research institutions at competitive prices. The center will particularly support small and medium-sized enterprises, startups, and academia by offering discounts and usage rights to reduce the financial burden of AI development. It will also provide technical consulting, commercialization support, and educational programs to bolster the domestic AI ecosystem.
Fostering a domestic AI semiconductor ecosystem is also a key objective. The government plans to create an R&D zone within the center to provide an environment for designing and validating domestic AI semiconductors, as well as supporting the demonstration and reliability verification of near-commercial neural processing units (NPUs). Subsequently, verified domestic AI semiconductors will be applied in real service environments through a separate NPU zone to support the formation of an initial market.
Minister of Science and ICT Lee Baek-hoon expressed hope that the National AI Computing Center will serve as a representative example of public-private joint investment, stimulating domestic AI infrastructure investment. He emphasized the government's commitment to actively support South Korea's growth as an AI infrastructure hub in Asia.
The establishment of the National AI Computing Center faced challenges, having been unsuccessful in two previous bidding rounds. The first round, held from January 23 to May 30 last year, was canceled due to a lack of bidders by the deadline. A second round from June 2 to June 13 of the same year also failed to attract any participating companies.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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