South Korea’s AI Power Play; Securing 10,000 GPUs for the Future

South Korea is on its way to procure about 10,000 high-performance GPUs during the year, with a view to furthering its interest in the rapidly accelerating global AI race. This falls under its wider plan to build a more cohesive national AI computing infrastructure and sustain the country’s innovation ecosystem. Artificial Intelligence has changed the face of this world, and all the countries are doing hard work to establish large computing infrastructures. Here, South Korea is one of the last countries to announce acquiring 10,000 high-end GPUs. The AI race is not just between the technological maharajas, it becomes an all-out national showdown among countries.

An Alternate Strategic View:

As artificial intelligence becomes a key driver for economic and technological growth, the intensified competition now encompasses not just corporate rivalries but also national innovation ecosystems. This strategic view was articulated by acting President Choi Sang-mok, who said, “As competition for dominance in the AI industry intensifies, the competitive landscape is shifting from battles between companies to a full-scale rivalry between national innovation ecosystems”.

In partnerships with the private sector, South Korea seeks to obtain the GPUs for its national AI computing center, set to start operations shortly, to support its AI aspirations.

Global Regulation for AI Chips:

This follows the recent regulations by the U.S government prohibiting exportation of AI chips. The new rulings, rank nations in different tiers and place South Korea among 18 countries that are exempt from export restrictions. Meanwhile, 120 other countries are facing export restrictions, whereas nations such as Iran, China, and Russia are virtually banned from accessing U.S AI chips.

The number of GPUs that would be needed for an AI model depends on factors like processing power demands, amount of data, complexity of the model, and time to train the model.The Ministry of Science and ICT in South Korea is yet to finalize its requirements regarding the budget, models of GPUs, and partners in the private sector. However, the government anticipates wrapping this up by September 2025.

Global GPU Market and South Korea AI Investment:

NVIDIA is considered to dominate the global GPU market by more than 80 percent and has continued to be a vital supplier for most AI companies across the globe. GPUs are publicized as general AI and accelerated computing application’s keystone hardware. However, all major companies like Microsoft backed OpenAI are now searching for alternatives to cut down their reliance on Nvidia. The company is finalizing the design of its own AI chip and for manufacturing, will turn to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC).

China is beginning to produce spectacular results in artificial intelligence, as the Chinese startup DeepSeek develops AI models that focus more on computational efficiency than on processing power, which could narrow the gap between Chinese and U.S AI chips.

Following its ambitious program of acquiring 10,000 GPUs, South Korea is driving very hard to assert itself into the ranks of highly competitive AI innovators. It builds partnerships with the private sector and takes exemption from the U.S chip restrictions to make sure it really leads the way in the revolution. The next few months will be vital for the government in ratifying procurement plans and advancing towards the national AI strategy. As long as technology keeps evolving, that investment by South Korea into infrastructure for AI may indeed prepare for revolutionary breakthroughs to arrive in the upcoming years.

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