Hyundai Motor Group has finalized the affiliate company that will invest in the Saemangeum AI (Artificial Intelligence) data center project and plans to establish two dedicated legal entities next month. The group is moving forward with the construction of the approximately 9 trillion won Saemangeum AI Valley, aiming to break ground in March of next year and launch formal services by early 2030.
Hyundai Motor Group said Friday that group companies including Hyundai Motor, Kia, Hyundai Mobis, Hyundai Engineering & Construction, and Hyundai AutoEver have made a final decision to participate in investments for the construction and operation of the AI data center.
The goal is to establish two special purpose vehicles (SPVs) responsible for the data center business next month, break ground in March of next year, and begin formal services by early 2030. The Saemangeum AI Valley is a project worth approximately 9 trillion won that combines an AI data center, a robot manufacturing cluster, solar power generation, a water electrolysis plant producing clean hydrogen, and an AI hydrogen city.
The legal entities are divided into a "Data Center SPV" responsible for hyperscale data center construction and infrastructure development, and a "GPU Service SPV" that secures high-performance GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) to provide services. The plan is to separate infrastructure construction from computing resource and software operations to enhance expertise and execution speed. Hyundai AutoEver, the group's IT and software affiliate, confirmed its participation in the GPU Service SPV through a board of directors resolution. It will support the group-wide AX (AI Transformation). Last month, the establishment of a 200MW (megawatt) solar power generation SPV and the architectural review process for the data center began.
Hyundai Motor Group plans to use the data center as a foundation for internalizing core technologies in physical AI such as autonomous driving, robotics, and manufacturing AI, as well as R&D. The data center will serve as a supercomputing hub for 24-hour learning and verification of E2E (End-to-End) autonomous driving algorithms. To realize Level 4 or higher autonomous driving, it is necessary to continuously learn from simulation synthetic data that virtually recreates dangerous situations such as bad weather and sudden obstacles, in addition to actual road driving data.
Robot action models will be trained in a digital twin environment based on the data center. This can improve the completeness of intelligent technologies that allow robots to perceive vision and language to make independent judgments and perform tasks, as well as joint control technologies for precise movements. In vehicle development, utilizing AI at each stage from design conception to virtual crash testing, aerodynamic analysis, and battery thermal management reduces simple repetitive work for researchers and improves development efficiency and quality.
Hyundai Motor Group is discussing technical cooperation with global companies and others for stable infrastructure construction and large-scale cloud integration. It is also coordinating financial support plans based on Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) signed with the Korea Development Bank and others.
On the morning of the same day, an opening ceremony for the "HMG Saemangeum Office" was held at the Future Mobility Tech Center of the Automotive Convergence Technology Institute in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province. Dedicated personnel will be stationed at the office to provide one-stop support for site permits, groundbreaking, issue management, and communication with relevant government ministries. Attendees included Moon Seong-yo, Director of the Saemangeum Development Agency; Lee Won-taek, Governor of North Jeolla Special Self-Governing Province; Kim Jae-jun, Mayor of Gunsan; Shin Seung-gyu, Vice President in charge of RH PMO at Hyundai Motor Group; and approximately 30 others.
Vice President Shin stated, "We plan to prioritize breaking ground on an AI data center capable of large-scale data accumulation and learning in Saemangeum to internalize autonomous driving and physical AI technologies and enhance capabilities," adding, "The HMG Saemangeum Office is a symbol representing our determination to push the project forward without wavering."
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