7 Projects Including Domestic AI Semiconductor Data Center Construction
[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Su-yeon] The Ministry of Science and ICT announced that the 2023 ‘K-Cloud Project’ will be jointly announced on the 16th. This project is a full-scale implementation of the 'K-Cloud Promotion Plan Using Domestic Artificial Intelligence (AI) Semiconductors,' which was announced through the ‘AI Semiconductor High-Level Strategic Dialogue’ held in December last year.
The 'K-Cloud' project, a core task of the 'Digital Strategy of the Republic of Korea,' aims to develop world-class ultra-high-speed, low-power domestic AI semiconductors, apply them to data centers to strengthen domestic cloud competitiveness, and provide enhanced AI and cloud services to the public. To this end, the government announced that it will invest a total of 826.2 billion KRW from 2023 to 2030 to advance domestic AI semiconductors through three stages (NPU → low-power PIM → ultra-low-power PIM).
The ‘K-Cloud Project’ announced this time is the first stage among them. It is a demonstration project that applies domestic NPUs (high-performance, low-power processors optimized for AI algorithms such as deep learning), which are currently in the early commercialization stage, to data centers and provides cloud-based AI services. Starting with a public offering of 37.6 billion KRW (7 projects) this year by linking the new domestic NPU data center construction project and existing AI and cloud service development projects, the government plans to invest approximately 100 billion KRW by 2025.
The specific budget and support scale for each announced project are as follows: ▲ AI semiconductor farm construction and demonstration (6.544 billion KRW) ▲ AI semiconductor testing and verification environment establishment (6.544 billion KRW) ▲ AI semiconductor application demonstration support (3.858 billion KRW) ▲ High-performance computing support (2.5 billion KRW) ▲ AI vouchers (10 billion KRW) ▲ Support for promising SaaS development and nurturing (4.64 billion KRW) ▲ Development and verification of SaaS for public sector use (3.6 billion KRW).
To enable as many companies as possible to secure successful references, the ‘AI Semiconductor Farm Construction and Demonstration’ project and the ‘AI Semiconductor Testing and Verification Environment Establishment’ project require participation and support from at least two domestic cloud, AI semiconductor, and AI service companies each. The lead institution must be a cloud company, and applicants must present specific cooperation plans among participating companies and institutions. When applying, applicants should propose low-power target amounts, cost reduction plans for service provision compared to existing services, software solution packaging, global market entry strategies, and expected effects such as public services.
Through this project, low-power data centers capable of high-performance computing with a total computational capacity of 10 PFLOPS (10 quadrillion floating-point operations per second) per data center based on domestic AI semiconductors will be constructed. Based on this, more than four AI services will be demonstrated in both private and public sectors. The first pilot service is scheduled to be provided in December.
The integrated announcement will be posted on the websites of the Ministry of Science and ICT, the project’s dedicated agencies?the National IT Industry Promotion Agency and the Korea Intelligent Information Society Agency?on the 16th. Detailed information, support requirements, and application periods can be confirmed through the project-specific public offering guides. Companies wishing to participate should familiarize themselves with the contents of the respective public offering guides.
The Ministry of Science and ICT announced that an integrated briefing session will be held at 2 p.m. on the 17th at the Pangyo Global R&D Center auditorium to provide detailed explanations about the support projects. Pre-registration for the briefing session can be done through the National IT Industry Promotion Agency website, but attendance on-site without prior registration is also possible.
On the morning of the 17th, the 2023 kickoff meeting of the ‘K-Cloud Alliance,’ composed of domestic AI semiconductor, cloud, and AI service companies, will also be held. The ‘K-Cloud Alliance’ was formed in December last year to establish a public-private cooperation channel for the successful promotion of the ‘K-Cloud’ project and to foster the related ecosystem. The meeting will discuss detailed operation, expansion, and cooperation plans.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Science and ICT’s 2023 budget for AI semiconductors is 195.2 billion KRW. Along with ongoing projects such as next-generation intelligent semiconductors and PIM AI semiconductor technology development, new projects will be launched in 2023, including ‘heterogeneous integration for advanced semiconductor packaging,’ ‘AI semiconductor software integrated platform technology development,’ ‘large-scale artificial neural network AI semiconductor software technology development,’ and an AI semiconductor graduate school project to cultivate highly skilled talent with AI semiconductor and software capabilities.
Jeon Young-soo, Director of the Information and Communication Industry Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, “As AI technology rapidly advances like OpenAI’s ‘ChatGPT’ and AI spreads more broadly into our daily lives, the importance of high-performance, low-power AI semiconductors specialized for AI computation is emerging.” He added, “Through the ‘K-Cloud Project,’ we plan to demonstrate that domestic AI semiconductors have market competitiveness in reducing power consumption of data centers and lowering costs of cloud and AI services, and support securing successful references that can lead to global expansion in the future.”
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