"Korea to Become a 'Token Factory'... National AI Computing Center Breaks Ground (Comprehensive)"

AI Computing Center to be Completed by 2028
Equipped with 15,000 GPUs
Public Demand from Academia, Research, and Industry Takes Priority

"Korea will grow to become a key nation in the global artificial intelligence (AI) supply chain."

At the groundbreaking ceremony for the National AI Computing Center held three days ago at the Solasido Data Center Park site in Haenam County, Jeollanam-do, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Baek Kun spoke. Photo by Eunseo Lee.

At the groundbreaking ceremony for the National AI Computing Center held on August 3 at the Solarsido Data Center Park site in Haenam County, Baek Kyunghoon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT, stated, "The National AI Computing Center will be a 'token factory' producing tokens for the world," and emphasized, "It will establish Korea as a country that receives orders for token intelligence."

The National AI Computing Center, built to expand domestic AI infrastructure, has officially broken ground. The government plans to establish a National AI Computing Center equipped with 15,000 AI semiconductors by 2028, aiming to provide the necessary resources for AI research, development, and services.

The center will be constructed in Solarsido Corporate City, Guseong-ri, Sanui-myeon, Haenam County, with a total investment of 2.5 trillion won. The facility, set on a 48,996 m² site, will be a two-story building comprising a computer center, operations building, and ancillary facilities.

This project has been undertaken by a Samsung SDS consortium, which includes Samsung SDS, Naver Cloud, Samsung C&T, Kakao, Samsung Electronics, and KT. After about a month-long bidding process launched last September, the Samsung SDS consortium was the sole bidder for the Solarsido site in Haenam.

To bring together public investment and private capital, the Ministry of Science and ICT established Korea AI Computing Center Co., Ltd. (KOACC) in June, jointly funded by the National Growth Fund of the Financial Services Commission and the Samsung SDS consortium.

KOACC plans to complete the National AI Computing Center by 2028. The company is currently securing necessary power and water for the center's operations by applying for electricity from Korea Electric Power Corporation and beginning the construction of water supply pipelines, among other foundational infrastructure preparations. Agreements have already been concluded with local governments to source all the required electricity and water from Gwangju, Jeollanam-do. Choi Heeju, KOACC’s Head of Data Center Construction, explained: “We plan to use 95% water-cooling with closed water circulation technology, minimizing water usage.”

Samsung SDS CEO Lee Junhee expressed his commitment as a representative of KOACC shareholders. He stated, "This is a special collaboration model between the government and private sector to maximize AI competitiveness," and stressed, "We are driving this project with the commitment to fulfill the calling of our times—to expand national AI infrastructure and activate the industrial ecosystem, thereby contributing to the development of the national economy through technological innovation."

"Leap toward Becoming Asia’s AI Infrastructure Hub"... Prioritizing Public Demand

A ceremony took place at the groundbreaking ceremony for the National AI Computing Center held three days ago at the Solaside Data Center Park site in Haenam County, Jeollanam-do. Photo by Eunseo Lee.

The National AI Computing Center will serve as the core infrastructure of the AI highway and as a testbed for domestic AI semiconductor technology. It will provide AI computing infrastructure at reasonable prices for academia, research institutes, and industry, and respond to the government's needs for AI innovation, thereby accelerating the growth of Korea's AI ecosystem. In addition, research and development zones will be established to offer validation environments for domestic AI semiconductor design and prototyping, and to support the commercialization and activation of validated domestic AI semiconductors.

Next year, some AI computing resources to be set up at the National AI Computing Center will be provided from Samsung SDS’s data center to meet the demands of academia, research organizations, and industry. However, the specific allocation of GPU resources for public sectors, such as academia and research, has not been finalized. Oh Taewon, KOACC’s Head of AI Computing Services, said, “Although we are a private company, we will prioritize public-sector demand in line with the mission of the project.”

Deputy Prime Minister Baek emphasized, "The government and private sector will join forces to secure advanced GPUs and simultaneously promote the activation of domestic AI semiconductors, thereby securing full-stack AI competitiveness and advancing toward becoming Asia’s AI infrastructure hub. With abundant renewable energy and scalable sites, we expect to transform the center into a core base for the nation’s three mega projects, ultimately realizing a balanced development model where both the region and country grow together."

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