South Korea Aims to Secure 18,000 GPUs by 2026 to Boost National AI Computing Capabilities

South Korea aims to secure 10,000 GPUs for national AI computing centre

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea on Monday announced plans to secure 10,000 high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) within this year in a bid to keep pace as the global AI race escalates. "As competition for dominance in the AI industry intensifies, the competitive landscape is shifting from battles between companies to a full-scale rivalry between national innovation ecosystems," South Korea's acting President Choi Sang-mok said in a statement. Choi said that the government aims to secure the 10,000 GPUs through public-private cooperation to help the country launch services at its national AI computing centre early. Last month, the U.S. government announced a new regulation aimed at regulating the flow of American AI chips and technology needed for the most advanced AI applications. The rule restricts the export of GPUs, specialized processors originally created to accelerate graphics rendering. The number of GPUs needed for an AI model depends on how advanced the GPU is, how much data is being used to train the model, the size of the model itself and the time the developer wants to spend training it. The regulation divides the world into tiers, with South Korea among about 18 countries essentially exempt from the restrictions, while 120 other countries will face caps and countries like Iran, China and Russia barred completely. The South Korean government has not yet decided what GPU products to purchase, but details such as budget, GPU models and participating private companies would be finalised by September this year, an official from the Ministry of Science and ICT (information and communications technology) told Reuters. U.S. chip designer Nvidia, which has seen soaring demand from customers involved in generative AI and accelerated computing for its chips, commands about an 80% share of the global GPU market, far ahead of rivals Intel and AMD. Meanwhile, Microsoft-backed OpenAI is pushing ahead with its plan to reduce its reliance on Nvidia, Reuters reported last week, for its chip supply by developing its first generation of in-house AI silicon. OpenAI's popular chatbot ChatGPT is trained and improved on tens of thousands of GPUs. The ChatGPT maker is finalising the design for its first in-house chip in the next few months and plans to send it for fabrication at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, Reuters reported, citing sources. The AI race has also been shaken up by the emergence of Chinese startup DeepSeek, using AI models that optimise computational efficiency rather than raw processing power, potentially partly closing the gap between Chinese-made AI processors and more powerful U.S. counterparts.

Gov't to secure 18,000 GPUs by 1st half of 2026 to enhance AI capabilities

gettyimagesbank Korea will acquire 18,000 high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) by the first half of next year to enhance the country's artificial intelligence (AI) computing capabilities, the science ministry said Thursday. The government initially plans to secure 10,000 GPUs within this year for the launch of a new national AI computing center in 2027, the Ministry of Science and ICT said in a press release. Separately, it will secure 8,000 GPUs by June next year to establish the country's sixth supercomputer, the release said. The move is aimed at swiftly building up the country's AI infrastructure and turning it into one of three global powers in the field, it said without elaborating. Korea aims to develop homegrown ChatGPT: acting president 2025-02-20 11:39 | Politics To build the state AI center, the government will have the state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) extend low-rate policy loans, worth up to 2.5 trillion won ($1.7 billion), to private companies to join the construction project, a ministry official said over the phone. "The AI center is scheduled to open in 2027 but the government plans to start service this year to provide timely help to local businesses and researchers in the field," he said. The government aims to increase the ratio of domestically produced semiconductors used in the upcoming AI center to 50 percent by 2030, the ministry said. GPUs play a crucial role in AI, delivering top-tier performance for AI training and inference. They also provide significant advantages across various applications that require accelerated computing. (Yonhap)

South Korea aims to secure 10,000 GPUs for national AI computing centre

"As competition for dominance in the AI industry intensifies, the competitive landscape is shifting from battles between companies to a full-scale rivalry between national innovation ecosystems," South Korea's acting President Choi Sang-mok said in a statement.South Korea on Monday announced plans to secure 10,000 high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) within this year in a bid to keep pace as the global AI race escalates. "As competition for dominance in the AI industry intensifies, the competitive landscape is shifting from battles between companies to a full-scale rivalry between national innovation ecosystems," South Korea's acting President Choi Sang-mok said in a statement. Choi said that the government aims to secure the 10,000 GPUs through public-private cooperation to help the country launch services at its national AI computing centre early. Last month, the US government announced a new regulation aimed at regulating the flow of American AI chips and technology needed for the most advanced AI applications. The rule restricts the export of GPUs, specialized processors originally created to accelerate graphics rendering. The number of GPUs needed for an AI model depends on how advanced the GPU is, how much data is being used to train the model, the size of the model itself and the time the developer wants to spend training it. The regulation divides the world into tiers, with South Korea among about 18 countries essentially exempt from the restrictions, while 120 other countries will face caps and countries like Iran, China and Russia barred completely. The South Korean government has not yet decided what GPU products to purchase, but details such as budget, GPU models and participating private companies would be finalised by September this year, an official from the Ministry of Science and ICT (information and communications technology) told Reuters. US chip designer Nvidia, which has seen soaring demand from customers involved in generative AI and accelerated computing for its chips, commands about an 80% share of the global GPU market, far ahead of rivals Intel and AMD. Meanwhile, Microsoft-backed OpenAI is pushing ahead with its plan to reduce its reliance on Nvidia, Reuters reported last week, for its chip supply by developing its first generation of in-house AI silicon. OpenAI's popular chatbot ChatGPT is trained and improved on tens of thousands of GPUs. The ChatGPT maker is finalising the design for its first in-house chip in the next few months and plans to send it for fabrication at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, Reuters reported, citing sources. The AI race has also been shaken up by the emergence of Chinese startup DeepSeek, using AI models that optimise computational efficiency rather than raw processing power, potentially partly closing the gap between Chinese-made AI processors and more powerful US counterparts.