Ham Gi-ho, CEO of AWS, "This Year Marks the First Year of AI Growth... Will Continue Investment in Korea"

Strengthening Cloud-Based AI Services
Investing 7.9 Trillion KRW in Domestic Cloud Infrastructure

"This year will be a year of explosive growth for artificial intelligence (AI). It can be seen as a transitional phase where applying AI to business not only brings advantages in information technology (IT) but also business benefits."

Ham Ki-ho, CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS) Korea, said this at a New Year press briefing held on the morning of the 5th at the AWS office in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. This implies that cloud-based AI will expand across industries throughout the year.

Ham Ki-ho, CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS) Korea, is speaking at the New Year's press conference held on the morning of the 5th at the AWS office building in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Provided by AWS

According to the report Futurescape released by market research firm IDC, global AI spending is forecasted to reach approximately $337 billion (about 491 trillion KRW) this year. Ham explained that more than half of this will be used in the cloud sector. The cloud here includes cloud infrastructure, software, platforms, and more. The spending scale is expected to gradually increase, reaching twice this year's amount by 2028.

AWS presented its strategies for this year as ▲ the spread of generative AI ▲ migration to large-scale AI models and system modernization ▲ industry-customized services. First, it plans to facilitate the adoption of graphics processing units (GPUs) for operating generative AI. This includes not only Nvidia’s latest semiconductors like the H100 but also chips developed by AWS itself. AWS acquired Israeli fabless semiconductor manufacturer Annapurna Labs in 2015 and has been developing its own chips. These in-house developed chips include 'Trainium' specialized for AI training and 'Inferentia' specialized for inference.

The migration and modernization strategies will also be strengthened. Migration refers to moving corporate information networks stored on offline servers to AWS’s cloud, while modernization means optimizing these migrated corporate information networks and services tailored for AI. Last year, AWS built an AI-based customer center platform called Artificial Intelligence Contact Center (AICC) in 45 countries where Korean Air operates. Starbucks’ generative AI chatbot 'The Siren Portal,' which connects stores and headquarters, was also created based on AWS cloud.

Plans to strengthen investment in Korea were also announced. This includes the 'STEAM' education program to nurture young talent and social contribution activities. Ham explained, "The amount AWS has invested in Korea from 2018 to 2022 is already approaching 3 trillion KRW."

When asked about specific plans for AWS’s domestic investment, Ham said, "We will invest in Korean cloud computing infrastructure, including data centers, until 2027," but added, "Specific plans cannot be disclosed." Previously, AWS announced in 2023 that it would invest about 7.9 trillion KRW in domestic cloud infrastructure.

Following Ham, Kim Ki-kwan, Head of Solutions Architecture at AWS Korea, introduced AWS’s machine learning development service 'SageMaker,' the large language model (LLM) 'Amazon Nova,' and the AI platform 'Bedrock,' which allows the use of multiple LLMs simultaneously.