“Supplied with private power”… criticism of ‘excluding government efforts and unnecessary division’
Na Kyung-won, a member of the People Power Party, criticized the Korean supply plan of 260,000 NVIDIA GPUs, asserting that it was a “theft of private enterprise achievements by the Lee Jae-myung government.” In a Facebook post on the 3rd, she stated, “The best event and achievement of APEC came from private power,” arguing that portraying the announcement of NVIDIA’s GPU supply plan as an achievement of the Lee Jae-myung administration is a forgery of achievements and theft.
She emphasized the need for follow-up measures to secure 260,000 GPUs rather than the administration’s self-congratulations for stealing company achievements. She pointed out that significant power consumption will require using all the electricity produced by Shin Kori Unit 1 or Saeul Unit 1 reactors for six months to a year.
Na also criticized Lee Jae-myung for lacking an ecosystem and operating strategy in his promise to secure 50,000 GPUs during his presidential campaign, calling such hardware without a plan mere scrap metal. She questioned the legitimacy of agreements reached after summits without any joint statements or fact sheets, urging the government to transparently disclose the negotiation details.
Some argue that while the “Chicken and Beer Meeting” might have facilitated NVIDIA’s GPU supply, such large-scale projects are unlikely to occur without government support, thus not all governmental efforts can be discounted. Furthermore, Na’s divisive statements on potential pitfalls in infrastructure establishment were criticized as unproductive.
NVIDIA’s active engagement with Korea is attributed to the country’s powerful market and culture, such as e-sports, which drove NVIDIA’s growth. According to Im Moon-young, a Standing Vice Chairman of the National AI Strategy Committee, NVIDIA’s deep ties with Korea stem from the country’s economic history and cultural influence on gaming,
Im suggests NVIDIA’s enhanced focus on Korea is driven by the stability under the new administration and its AI-centric economic policies, sparking interest from major global tech companies in Korea.
This article is also published in the independent media outlet ‘I Am Peter News.’