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ProgrammeGovernmentFinanceSouth KoreaConfirmed

South Korea sets a 2030 target of 20 AI unicorns and one decacorn

See how this story connects

Source: Yonhap News Agency

South Korea’s Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the National AI Strategy Committee announced the AI Startup Beyond Unicorn strategy in Seoul on 11 November 2026, at the Deep Dive into 2026 forum. It aims to grow 20 AI unicorns, each valued at 1 trillion won or more, and one AI decacorn, valued at 10 trillion won or more, by 2030. Each company that reaches the final stage of the programme receives at least 10 billion won in R&D and commercialisation funding, from a 175 billion won startup fund, a 225 billion won scale-up fund and a 100 billion won unicorn fund.

Why it matters

AI startups picked each year from a pool of about 50 candidates get staged funding, and the government and public bodies will buy and test their technology as first customers.

When
11 Nov 2026
ID
WTA-N-2026-0830
Who
Ministry of SMEs and Startups, National AI Strategy Committee

Summary written with AI by wheresthe.ai, from Yonhap News Agency. Checked against the source on 11 Nov 2026.

Read the original at Yonhap News Agency

Source copy: saved on 11 Nov 2026 to check this story and not republished, because the text belongs to its publisher. Also held by the Internet Archive.

Earlier in this Storyline: What led hereSouth Korea plans AI startup unicorn growth strategy

Data to measure this

Compare the years before 2026 with the years since in these series. National sources for South Korea come first.

  • OECD.AI: venture capital investments in AI start-upsOECD.AI (data from Preqin)Venture capital invested in AI start-ups by country and industry, with series for generative AI and AI compute start-ups.live · query tool
  • AI Industry SurveySoftware Policy & Research Institute for the Ministry of Science and ICTKorean AI companies’ sales, exports, workforce, investment and obstacles.Years: 2023-2024 · annual · report only · PDF
  • Crunchbase company and funding dataCrunchbase · paidPrivate company profiles, funding rounds and acquisitions.live · api · API

All data for South Korea

Cite this story

WTA-N-2026-0830: “South Korea sets a 2030 target of 20 AI unicorns and one decacorn.” wheresthe.ai, 11 Nov 2026. https://wheresthe.ai/d/kr-south-korea-ai-startup-beyond-unicorn-strategy-2026-11/ (source: Yonhap News Agency).

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