Minister Lee Emphasizes Urgent Need for Supplementary Budget
Delay in GPU Acquisition Could Set Korea's AI Back by Three Years
Support Needed for Universities, Research Institutes, and Startups
Insufficient Infrastructure Hindering R&D Progress
Securing GPUs Essential for National AI Projects and the World Best LLM
Government Conducting Comprehensive Survey on GPU Resources
Minister of Science and ICT Lee Sangmin emphasized the importance of introducing GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) at the national level, as well as the urgent need to secure the supplementary budget.
On March 11, during a briefing at the Government Complex Seoul on the "February Key Task Achievements and March Plans of the Ministry of Science and ICT," Minister Lee stated, "If the supplementary budget is not secured quickly, it will be difficult to introduce GPUs this year," adding, "We are concerned about facing a severe bottleneck period."
Minister Lee also warned, "If we fall behind by about nine months in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), in terms of our previous development speed, it would be equivalent to falling behind by about three years." He expressed concern that if the introduction of GPUs is delayed beyond this year, Korea's AI technology could lag behind competing countries by approximately three years.
He further emphasized that the importance of securing GPUs is not just for large private corporations, but is crucial for research and development (R&D) at universities, research institutes, and AI startups.
Minister Lee said, "The need to quickly establish AI computing infrastructure is somewhat different from the private sector," and added, "Universities, research institutes, and small enterprise research centers, as well as startups, need to continue R&D, but they are facing significant difficulties due to the lack of adequate infrastructure."
He also pointed out that, given the rapid advancement of AI technology, new low-power GPUs could emerge at any time, so it is essential to expedite the acquisition of GPUs as much as possible.
Projects being promoted by the Ministry of Science and ICT, such as the establishment of a national AI computing center and the World Best LLM (Large Language Model) project, can only yield substantial results if a sufficient number of GPUs are secured.
Song Sanghoon, Director General for Information and Communications Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, explained, "The World Best LLM project requires GPUs and is being promoted on the premise of the supplementary budget," and added, "Although we do not know when the supplementary budget will be secured, we are communicating with industry and academia and planning concrete projects so that we can proceed at any time."
He revealed that, according to a recent survey on the status of the AI industry, the private sector possesses about 2,000 H100 GPUs. Director Song stated, "The companies that responded to the survey collectively own about 2,000 GPUs," adding, "Companies such as Naver and Kakao did not respond."
He went on to say, "We are also conducting a comprehensive survey on the number of GPUs that could be provided to the government for initiatives like the World Best LLM project, meaning those that could be made available to startups and universities."
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