250 Billion Won Allocated to "Everyone's AI"... 10 Billion Won Each for Three Consortia

100 Billion Won Allocated to Each SK Telecom, Kakao, and KT Consortium
170 Billion Won for GPU Leasing
50 Billion Won for Expansion of Public and Specialized Agents

The government has allocated a budget of 250 billion won for next year to the "AI for Everyone" project, which aims to build free artificial intelligence (AI) services, and will provide 10 billion won in operating expenses to each of the three selected consortiums.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Baek Kyung-hoon is speaking at the kickoff meeting for the "AI for All Project" held at the Seoul Press Center on September 4, 2026. Photo by Cho Yongjun

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced at a background briefing held at the Korea Press Center in Jung-gu, Seoul, on September 4 that it has assigned a budget of 250 billion won to the AI for Everyone project.

The government will allocate 10 billion won each in operating expenses to three consortiums—SK Telecom, Kakao, and KT—to support service operation, management, and collaboration among participating companies. The SKT consortium is comprised of 20 companies, the Kakao consortium includes 15 companies, and the KT consortium consists of 17 companies.

The largest portion of the budget, 170 billion won, will be allocated for the use of graphics processing units (GPUs). The government will lease 2,000 units of NVIDIA B200 and provide the required computing resources to the three consortiums.

The remaining 50 billion won will be used for expanding public agents and specialized services. It will be spent to embed externally developed agents into the platforms developed by the three consortiums.

Kim Kyung-Man, policy chief for AI at the Ministry of Science and ICT, stated, "From March next year, we will monitor usage volume by each consortium and allocate more budget to those with higher numbers of subscribers and greater activity."

The government has begun full-scale efforts to launch the "AI for Everyone" project within the year, aiming to provide free AI services to all citizens. This year, 512 units of NVIDIA B200 will be provided initially. Starting next year, the government will cover service provision costs through the national budget. The plan also includes collaboration with the Personal Information Protection Commission, Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), and the AI Safety Lab to conduct security verifications, with a closed beta service scheduled to launch in October.

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