"South Korea Needs Infrastructure Like Power Supply to Become a Top 3 AI Power"

Korea Development Bank "2025 Next 100 Forum"

Industry experts have stated that bold investments in infrastructure, such as power supply and data centers, are necessary for South Korea to stand out in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). They also suggested that developing AI technologies specialized in areas where Korean companies excel is essential for the nation to become one of the top three global AI powers, following the United States and China.

Park Sunghyun, CEO of Rebellion, said at the "2025 Next 100 Forum" hosted by Korea Development Bank on the afternoon of November 19, "For AI to advance, financial capital must be invested in infrastructure such as power supply and data centers." Park emphasized that financial capital must take a clear-eyed approach, examining the entire value chain within the AI industry, and added, "If we develop AI with the mindset of 'Let's make it for our own use,' we will lose every time." He stressed that AI must be developed with international competitiveness in mind, and that investments in AI semiconductors and infrastructure must come first to support this. Park further noted, "During the era of former President Park Chung-hee, logistics infrastructure was established, and during the era of former President Kim Dae-jung, information technology (IT) infrastructure was laid down, which enabled companies like Coupang, Kakao, and Naver to grow." He reiterated the need for greater capital investment in infrastructure such as power and data centers.

On the afternoon of the 19th, at the Conrad Hotel in Seoul, a discussion took place under the theme "The Road to AI G3" during the "2025 Next 100 Forum." The participants were Professor Jeong Gumin of the Department of Electronic Engineering at Kookmin University (from left), Sunghoon Kim, CEO of Upstage, Sunghyun Park, CEO of Rebellion, and Hwayoung Lee, Executive Director at LG AI Research Institute. Photo by Oh Gyumin

There was also an opinion that Korean companies should become the best in the world by specializing AI technologies in the fields they lead. Kim Sunghoon, CEO of Upstage, said, "What we at Upstage are pursuing is to become number one, and only by gathering many companies that are number one in their fields can we become one of the top three AI powers." Introducing Upstage's specialization in office AI, Kim remarked, "Claude has shown that if you enter a field and become number one, you can make a significant impact." He shared an anecdote from the founding of Anthropic, where he directly asked former OpenAI employees about their strategy, and they replied that they would develop specialized models to compete with OpenAI. He added, "In the field of source code editing and writing, Claude is the strongest player," and "By delving deeply into a specific area, Claude has surpassed OpenAI's traffic in certain B2B segments."

Hwayoung Lee, Executive Director at LG AI Research Institute, also stated, "It is important to achieve integration through specialization in the domains where AI and Korean companies have strengths, and to create AI of the highest global standard." Lee argued that if Korean companies accumulate their know-how as data in each industry sector and AI learns from this, they can excel in domain-specific areas.