President Lee: "Previous Administration's R&D Budget Regressed, 10.1 Trillion Won Allocated for AI Next Year"

President Lee Delivers Budget Speech at National Assembly on the 4th
"Previous Administration Wasted Precious Time"
Next Year's AI Budget to Be Expanded More Than Threefold Compared to This Year

President Lee Jae-myung is delivering the policy speech on the government budget for the next year at the National Assembly in Yeouido on the 4th. The People Power Party did not attend. November 4, 2025.

President Lee Jae-myung criticized the previous administration's research and development (R&D) policy, saying it had "regressed to the past," and explained that going forward, "we will significantly expand investments to usher in the era of artificial intelligence (AI) and firmly lay the foundation for growth."

In his policy speech on the 2026 government budget at the National Assembly on this day, President Lee stated, "The transition to an AI-driven society is inevitable," adding, "During the industrial era, a day's delay would set you back a month; in the information era, a day's delay meant falling behind by a year; but in the AI era, a day's delay will leave you a generation behind."

He further criticized, "The previous administration not only wasted precious time but also regressed by drastically cutting the R&D budget."

President Lee went on to say that the budget for the next year includes "a total of 10.1 trillion won allocated for a major transformation to become one of the world's top three AI powers," noting that "this is more than three times the 3.3 trillion won budgeted this year." Of next year's budget, 2.6 trillion won will be invested in introducing AI across all sectors-industry, daily life, and public services-while 7.5 trillion won will go toward nurturing talent and building infrastructure.

He pledged, "To achieve leadership in physical AI, we will focus investments in key projects by leveraging Korea's outstanding manufacturing capabilities and data," and added, "We will invest about 6 trillion won over the next five years to rapidly drive the AI transformation in major industries such as robotics, automobiles, shipbuilding, home appliances and semiconductors, and factories."

Through these efforts, the government will promote the establishment of regional hubs for physical AI, the implementation of large-scale R&D and demonstration projects, the acceleration of regional innovation based on AI, and the rapid application of AI to 300 products closely related to daily life.

President Lee also declared, "We will boldly invest in nurturing talent and building core infrastructure," pledging to "train 11,000 highly skilled professionals to strengthen AI competitiveness, and support all citizens to proactively utilize AI through customized education for each generation."

Regarding high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs), which are essential for building AI infrastructure, he stated, "We will purchase an additional 15,000 units to secure a total of 35,000 units ahead of schedule, meeting the government's target," and analyzed, "Since Nvidia has agreed to supply 260,000 GPUs to Korea, domestic private companies will also have no difficulty securing GPUs."

President Lee reported that R&D investment for developing core technologies in advanced strategic industries such as AI, content, and defense has been expanded to a record-high 35.3 trillion won, an increase of 19.3%. His plan is to create a 150 trillion won National Growth Fund over the next five years to foster advanced strategic industries.

Meanwhile, President Lee emphasized, "In the AI era, the importance of culture will inevitably become much greater," and stated, "We will spare no investment in K-culture to further strengthen the global influence of our culture."