South Korea invests $5.7B to boost AI industry
May 3 (Asia Today) -- South Korea is accelerating large-scale investment to strengthen its artificial intelligence competitiveness through the National Growth Fund, expanding support beyond AI computing infrastructure to energy and advanced materials.
The Financial Services Commission said Sunday that its National Growth Fund management committee approved five projects Wednesday, including investment in companies developing AI foundation models and construction of a national AI computing center. Total approvals through April reached 8.4 trillion won, or about $5.7 billion.
A key part of the investment is AI infrastructure. The government approved equity investment in a national AI computing center equipped with 15,000 graphics processing units. The project will be carried out through a public-private special purpose company and is expected to provide high-performance computing resources to industry and research institutions.
The government also plans to invest about 560 billion won, or $380 million, in South Korean AI company Upstage. Of that amount, 100 billion won, or $67.9 million, will come from the advanced strategic industry fund to support development of enterprise large language models and AI foundation models.
The investment is also expanding into energy and supply chains as electricity demand from data centers is expected to rise sharply with the spread of AI.
The commission said it will provide 250 billion won, or $170 million, in low-interest loans for a spherical graphite production plant, a key material for rechargeable batteries. It also will fund a company producing high-purity hydrogen fluoride, which is essential for semiconductor manufacturing.
The fund also will support the biotechnology sector by providing 85 billion won, or $57.7 million, in low-interest loans to a mid-sized company expanding biosimilar production facilities.
"We will speed up investment in advanced industries and infrastructure through the National Growth Fund and raise competitiveness across the AI ecosystem," a Financial Services Commission official said.
-- Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI
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