South Korea Builds 18.4GW AI Data Center in 10 Years
The South Korean government has announced a plan to build 18.4 gigawatts of Artificial Intelligence Data Centers (AIDCs) nationwide over the next decade, with the goal of completing this plan by 2035.
This mega project, which will be implemented in two phases, is expected to cost over 100 trillion Korean won (approximately 650 billion US dollars) and will be built in cooperation with three major corporate groups, including SK Group (led by SK Telecom), GS Group, and Naver.
The AIDC mega project is one of the pillars of South Korean President Lee Jae myung’s “three main axes” national strategy announced on Monday.
This public-private partnership plan is called the “Three Mega Projects of South Korea’s Great Leap Forward”, which also includes the development of local artificial intelligence chips and the development of physical artificial intelligence, with the latter focusing on manufacturing robots and artificial intelligence systems that interact with the physical world, such as manufacturing, automation, and industrial applications.
This comprehensive plan represents South Korea’s strategic response to the global artificial intelligence competition, leveraging its semiconductor manufacturing expertise while expanding into data infrastructure and next-generation physical artificial intelligence applications.
Li Zaiming said in a televised speech, “We must ensure the core elements of artificial intelligence faster than any other country. Semiconductors, physical artificial intelligence, and artificial intelligence data centers are the three main axes for us to achieve the Great Leap Forward.”
National AIDC expansion
South Korea’s data centers have always been highly concentrated in the Seoul metropolitan area. In order to promote regional balanced development and alleviate power grid congestion, 18.4GW of infrastructure will be allocated nationwide, with priority given to developing areas such as Zhongqing, Ulsan, Donghai, and Shizong.
The plan aims to break away from the development model centered around Seoul and promote regional economic balance.
The first phase of the AIDC mega project is expected to be completed within three years, by 2029, at an estimated cost of 55 trillion Korean won (approximately 357 billion US dollars), with a target capacity of 8.4 GW. The second phase of the project will continue from 2030 to 2035, adding 10 GW of capacity to the AIDC portfolio, which will result in a total investment of over 100 trillion Korean won.
The government will subsidize infrastructure construction by providing preferential electricity prices to these large facilities and simplifying land and water rights approvals.
SK Group will bear the largest share of AIDC construction -15GW. SK Group Chairman Choi Tae won positions these infrastructures as intelligent processing centers that directly meet global artificial intelligence needs.
SK Group Chairman Choi Tae won emphasized that in the era of artificial intelligence, data centers are factories that produce intelligence, positioning these facilities as manufacturing infrastructure rather than just storage facilities.
Token Factory Strategy and Local NPU Ecosystem
South Korean Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science, Technology, Information and Communication (MSIT), Bae Ki hoon, has redefined Artificial Intelligence Data Centers (AIDCs) as “token factories” that produce raw artificial intelligence, rather than passive storage units.
Its goal is to establish a “Token Economy” where tokens created by AIDC drive physical artificial intelligence and AI agents, thereby generating economic value.
According to the Chosun Ilbo, Bae Ki hoon said, “We will build the world’s fastest artificial intelligence society, so that everyone can use artificial intelligence without cost burden.”
The government is not entirely reliant on imported foreign GPUs, but also mandates the establishment of an open ecosystem for domestic chip design. AIDC will serve as a large-scale testing ground to validate and deploy next-generation neural processing units (NPUs) developed by local startups such as FuriosaAI and Rebellions Inc.
Pei Jixun pointed out, “The artificial intelligence market is rapidly shifting from training to inference, and the inference market is an open ecosystem.”
South Korea plans to export the complete turnkey AIDC architecture globally after successfully integrating and validating the bundled technology stack that includes locally produced NPUs, cooling systems, customized servers, and localized cloud software in its enterprises.