The National Assembly is set to begin formal review of the 2027 budget proposal alongside the 2026 national audit. The government's 2027 budget proposal, released earlier this month, includes various projects aimed at transforming South Korea into an "AI nation," such as a 9.4 trillion won AI (artificial intelligence) Daejeon initiative. As the budget review process continues for over two months until early December, attention is focused on how these AI project budgets will be handled. We take a closer look at the key AI projects that are expected to become battlegrounds between ruling and opposition parties during the budget review.
First, the government has allocated 250 billion won for the "Universal Utilization Support for National AI Services," also known as the "AI for Everyone" project. The "AI for Everyone" project, which will receive new funding starting in 2027, aims to enable all citizens to use domestic AI services unlimitedly and free of charge with ease and convenience, building on achievements in securing domestic AI models. The Ministry of Science and ICT selected a consortium led by three companies—SK Telecom, KT, and Kakao—as the participating entities for "AI for Everyone" through this year's public recruitment. These companies plan to launch their respective "AI for Everyone" applications later this year, each leveraging its unique strengths.
The government has outlined plans to fully invest in the "AI for Everyone" project starting in 2027. To implement these services, 170 billion won will be allocated for GPU (graphics processing unit) support, and a total of 300 billion won will be distributed among the three consortia at 100 billion won each. The remaining 50 billion won is intended to be used to support the development of specialized AI services within available limits.
The budget allocated for developing and securing top-tier AI models in South Korea amounts to 5.5937 trillion won. According to the Ministry of Science and ICT, this includes not only the ongoing project to develop the proprietary AI foundation model ("Dokpamo") but also talent development initiatives.
The budget for strengthening the AI computing resource utilization infrastructure to support the Dokpamo project is 4.2752 trillion won. This represents more than double the 2.1087 trillion won allocated in this year's budget proposal.
Most of this project's budget will be used to secure GPU servers. The plan is to lease 140 racks of next-generation chips called "Ver Rubin," at a cost of 27.5 billion won per rack, totaling 3.85 trillion won. Additionally, 388.5 billion won has been allocated for leasing various GPUs, including 4,000 units of 'H100' class and 4,000 units of 'B200' class GPUs. The Ministry of Science and ICT explained that nearly half of the AI transition budget was dedicated to securing GPUs, considering the increasingly high prices of GPU hardware.
The Ministry of Science and Technology and Information (Ministry) stated, "Depending on market conditions, the models secured may be upgraded to higher-performance models with equivalent or better capabilities, and we will flexibly respond to national-level advanced AI semiconductor demand involving industry, academia, and research institutions."
The government plans to allocate 800 billion won not only for GPUs but also for data support required for frontier-level AI learning. Compared to the 30 billion won allocated in the 2026 budget, this represents a 26.7-fold increase. The plan is to provide high-quality training data so that South Korea's developing AI models can reach frontier-level intelligence and performance within a short period. The training data secured through these budgets will be provided to companies participating in the government's Dokpamo project and security-specialized AI development projects. Additionally, the government plans to invest 25 billion won in human resource development to cultivate frontier talent for generative AI.
Meanwhile, the review direction for AI development projects such as Dokpamo, currently awaiting a third-round review, is being reorganized and is expected to be announced as early as October. Regarding this, Vice Minister of Economy and Finance and Minister of Science and ICT, Bae Keong-hoon, recently told Money Today, "It is important to create AI models that can be widely used by industries and developers." He further explained the evaluation direction by stating, "Beyond showing certain results, we must make these models widely adopted so that business models can be built upon them and an AI ecosystem can emerge."
in TECH
