Physical AI Companies to Gather in Masan New City... Choi Hyungdoo Vows to Accelerate Project

57 Companies and Institutions Sign MOU to Join Innovation Town

Masan Marine New City, located in Changwon Special City, Gyeongsangnam-do, is being developed as a new domestic hub for physical artificial intelligence (AI).

On August 28, 57 companies and institutions participating in the Physical AI Consortium, along with Changwon Special City, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) expressing their intent to move into the Digital·Network·AI (DNA) Innovation Town. The DNA Innovation Town is a 390 billion won project led by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Companies expressing interest include major domestic AI companies and the physical AI business units of leading manufacturing conglomerates.

Hyungdoo Choi, member of the People Power Party (Masan Happo District, Changwon City, Gyeongnam), stated, "Our city, which has been at the heart of Korea's manufacturing industry, will accelerate this project so that we can soar once again with the new wings of physical AI."

Hyungdoo Choi, member of the People Power Party. Photo by Hyunmin Kim

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy is promoting the construction of the DNA Innovation Town on approximately 66,000 square meters (20,000 pyeong) of land on the eastern side of Masan Marine New City, with a total project cost of 390 billion won. Choi's office predicted that the signing of this MOU will add momentum for the project to pass the preliminary feasibility study.

The domestic cloud company Megazone has decided to establish a Physical AX Research Collaboration Center at Kyungnam University ahead of moving into the Digital Free Trade Zone. Megazone is also participating as a private investor with about 100 billion won in the Gyeongnam Physical AI government-funded project initiated by the Ministry of Science and ICT.

The opening ceremony of the Megazone Physical AX Research Collaboration Center was attended by Wansu Park, Governor of Gyeongnam Province, Jemyeong Ryu, Vice Minister of Science and ICT, Juwan Lee, Co-Chairman of Megazone, and Assemblyman Choi. In his congratulatory remarks, Minister Joungkwan Kim of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said, "We expect the Digital Innovation Town to become a forward operating base for the manufacturing industry's AI transformation (M-AX)."

Governor Park also congratulated the opening of the collaboration center of a leading private investor in the Gyeongnam Physical AI budget project, stating that "it is being recognized as a model budget project within the government in terms of cooperation between national and private investment funds."

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