Seoul: South Korea plans to invest 10 trillion won (US$6.7 billion) in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector this year via the National Growth Fund as part of its goal to foster a Korean equivalent of U.S. tech giant Nvidia Corp., the science ministry said Tuesday.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Financial Services Commission (FSC) unveiled the plan during a conference in Seoul. The conference gathered AI-related companies to discuss strategies for utilizing the state fund to propel growth in the AI industry.
In 2025, the government introduced the National Growth Fund, aiming to invest at least 150 trillion won from public and private sources over five years. The goal is to secure new growth engines for Asia's fourth-largest economy. The government had previously announced the first batch of seven projects under this plan, including one aimed at fostering a Korean equivalent of Nvidia.
Science Minister Bae Kyung-hoon highlighted challenges in the global AI market, currently led by GPUs, due to their massive energy consumption and high costs. Bae emphasized that big tech AI companies are engaged in fierce competition to overcome these limitations by developing next-generation NPU technologies specialized in inference. South Korea plans to focus on fostering the domestic NPU industry to become a leading player in the global market.
FSC Chairman Lee Eog-weon supported this view, noting the necessity for large-scale initial investment and ongoing hardware upgrades in the AI industry. Through the National Growth Fund, the government intends to invest 50 trillion won in the AI and semiconductor sectors over five years, including 10 trillion won this year.
The science ministry emphasized its commitment to working closely with the private sector and the FSC to find new project opportunities and foster a Korean equivalent of Nvidia.