Gangwon Province Selected for Government AI Project... 9.8 Billion Won Investment Through 2027

Gangwon Province Opens University GPUs to Foster AI Companies
Small Data Centers to Be Established in Earnest
Supporting Local Companies in Developing AI Services for Medical, Safety, and Manufacturing Sectors

Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province (Governor Woo Sangho) has been selected for the government’s AI industry promotion project, officially kicking off efforts to build a regional AI ecosystem. The core initiative is to share high-performance computing resources (GPUs) owned by local universities with regional businesses, supporting the development of AI services in the medical, manufacturing, and safety sectors.

A view of the Gangwon Provincial Government Building. Provided by Gangwon Provincial Government

On July 4, Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province announced that it was selected as a final recipient in the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National IT Industry Promotion Agency’s “2026 Small Data Center-Based Artificial Intelligence (AI) Industry Growth Support Project” public offering.

This year, 10 projects from across the country were submitted, with only three—including Gangwon Province—ultimately selected. The program will run through 2027, with a total investment of 9.8 billion won, including 5.9 billion won in national funding. Gangwon Province and Gangneung City are participating, with Gangwon Technopark and the Gangneung Science & Industry Promotion Agency serving as project organizers.

The key focus of the program is to enable AI companies in Gangwon Province to jointly utilize GPU resources owned by Gangwon National University’s Gangneung Campus and Hallym University. This will allow businesses to develop and demonstrate AI services in the medical, manufacturing, and safety sectors without having to independently build costly AI computing infrastructure.

Seven local companies will use AI data centers within the universities to conduct technology development and demonstration projects. The initiative aims to accelerate AI transformation (AX) across industries and establish a regional AI collaboration ecosystem involving universities, companies, and public institutions working together.

Support will be tailored to each sector. In the medical field, AI-based medical and care services, as well as nursing and health education solutions, will be developed to improve the quality of healthcare services. In the safety sector, the plan is to establish coastal safety management, facility inspection, and disaster response systems by integrating AI with drones. For manufacturing, AI will be applied to green bio-manufacturing processes and defect detection systems to boost productivity and quality competitiveness.

Gangwon Province expects this initiative not only to increase the utilization of regional AI infrastructure, but also to enhance the AI technology competitiveness of local companies.

A Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province official stated, “Through this project, we will establish a linkage system that allows local companies to efficiently use GPU resources built in the region. Based on this, we aim to strengthen their AI utilization capabilities and competitiveness, accelerating the AI transformation of local industries.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.