Minister Baek Kyung Hoon: "Up to 37,000 Advanced GPUs to Be Secured Early by Next Year"

"Securing 50,000 GPUs Accelerated by 2-3 Years"
"AI Supremacy Race Intensifies... Call for NPU Adoption"

The government will accelerate its timeline for securing 50,000 advanced Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) by 2 to 3 years, aiming to secure up to 37,000 GPUs by next year. To speed up the establishment of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, a special law will also be enacted.

Science and ICT Minister Baek Kyung Hoon is speaking at the 'Advanced GPU Acquisition and AI Highway On-site Meeting' held on the afternoon of the 29th at the Kakao Data Center Ansan in Sangnok-gu, Ansan-si, Gyeonggi-do. Provided by the Ministry of Science and ICT

On August 29, Science and ICT Minister Baek Kyung Hoon announced at the 'AI Highway Meeting' held at the Kakao Data Center in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, "We will make every effort to secure advanced GPUs."

Originally, the government planned to secure a total of 13,000 advanced GPUs this year through a first supplementary budget of 1.46 trillion won, and to build the sixth supercomputer equipped with 9,000 advanced GPUs next year.

However, the government determined that time is running short to survive the AI supremacy race with the United States and China. Minister Baek stated, "We must develop AI technologies and services that can compete with China on an equal footing within 2 to 3 years," adding, "Next year, separate from the supercomputer, we plan to secure 15,000 GPUs at once."

Kakao, Naver Cloud, and NHN Cloud are participating in the government-supported GPU acquisition project. Prior to the meeting, Kim Deukjung, Vice President of the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA); Kim Yuwon, CEO of Naver Cloud; Kim Donghoon, CEO of NHN Cloud; and Kim Sewoong, Vice President of Kakao, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on 'Building Advanced GPUs and Strengthening the Competitiveness of Domestic AI Computing Infrastructure,' agreeing to work closely together to establish the AI Highway.

NIPA presented the progress of the project, the status of the recently launched working-level consultative body between the Ministry of Science and ICT, NIPA, and partner companies, as well as future plans. The parties agreed to closely monitor the seamless acquisition of GPUs, the establishment of a 'GPU Integrated Support Platform' (tentative name) in October, and the allocation and support of GPUs to industry, academia, and research institutes starting in December.

Kakao introduced the case of its Ansan data center under the theme of 'Sustainable AI Data Center Construction Direction for Building and Activating the AI Highway.' The presentation covered minimizing water usage through rainwater recycling, improving energy efficiency through solar facilities on walls and rooftops, collaborating with universities to build AI data centers, and opening the AI data center to local residents.

Minister Baek stated, "The government will act as a catalyst so that companies and schools can utilize AI infrastructure, such as using GPUs at low cost, and we hope companies will actively foster the ecosystem." He also added, "The market should provide opportunities to strengthen the performance and price competitiveness of Neural Processing Units (NPUs), and we ask cloud service providers to actively consider introducing NPUs domestically."