South Korea to fund a $3.48 billion frontier AI project next year
The South Korean government will launch a state-backed AI initiative next year, investing 4.7 trillion won to develop a frontier model that can rival top Chinese open-source systems.
South Korea plans to start a government-backed frontier artificial-intelligence project in the coming year, allocating 4.7 trillion won in equity funding. Ryu Je-myung, Second Vice Minister of Science and ICT, said the initiative will be structured as a special-purpose company that invites top domestic AI firms to apply and be evaluated. The investment will cover the purchase of 10,000 Nvidia Vera Rubin GPUs and 800 billion won for training data, with participating firms expected to match the public funds.
While the national AI foundation model competition will proceed, its emphasis will shift toward sector-specific models, and finalists may choose to join the new frontier effort. The government frames the project as a response to the escalating global race for advanced AI, seeking to overcome resource constraints by consolidating capabilities.
Why it matters
The funding could position South Korea among the few nations capable of building AI models that compete with leading global systems.
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