Storylines / Organisation
Ministry of Science and ICT
10 developments involving Ministry of Science and ICT in 1 country or body. The most recent is Korea’s science ministry plans 4.7 trillion won for a sovereign frontier model, 8 Sep 2026.
KeyStory
- Korea’s science ministry plans 4.7 trillion won for a sovereign frontier model
Korea is proposing state money at the scale of a frontier training run, on top of the sovereign AI model competition already under way.
- Korea picks SK Telecom, KT and Kakao consortia to build free ‘AI for all’ services
Korea is paying three telecom and platform groups to give every citizen a free AI assistant built mostly on domestic models, with GPUs supplied by the state.
- Korea’s sovereign AI project cuts Motif and advances LG, SK Telecom and Upstage
Korea’s state-backed frontier model will come from LG, SK Telecom or Upstage, and the weighting that cut the top benchmark scorer is under scrutiny.
- Samsung SDS consortium picked to build Korea’s National AI Computing Center
Korean researchers, startups and the national model teams get a planned state-backed GPU centre outside Seoul, run by domestic cloud firms.
- South Korea’s AI Basic Act takes effect, with a one-year pause on fines
Large foreign AI providers serving Korea must appoint a local representative and label generative outputs, though fines of up to KRW 30 million are withheld for at least a year.
- Korea cuts Naver Cloud and NC AI from its national AI model project; LG scores highest
Korean model developers learned the project’s originality rule is enforced: a team that reused foreign components without retraining lost state GPUs and data.
- NVIDIA to supply over 260,000 GPUs to Korea’s government and four companies
Korean manufacturers, cloud providers and the national foundation model teams gained a committed supply of NVIDIA GPUs, with up to 50,000 set aside for public use.
- Korea picks Naver Cloud, SK Telecom, LG, NC AI and Upstage to build national AI models
Five Korean developers received state support, starting with GPUs for three of them, to build domestic foundation models, with funding tied to surviving six-monthly cuts.
- South Korea’s National Assembly passes the AI Basic Act, 260 votes to 1
AI providers serving Korean users got a dated national AI law with duties for high-impact and generative AI, giving companies a year to prepare.
- South Korea opens its AI Safety Institute in Pangyo, led by Kim Myuhng-joo
Korean AI developers gained a national body for safety research and evaluation, and Korea took a seat in the international network of government AI safety institutes.