At a briefing held at the Government Complex in Seoul on the 4th, Yu Sang-im, Minister of Science and ICT, announced the status of key tasks of the Ministry for the year 2025 to the public. According to the Ministry, Minister Yu revealed that there are about 10 AI models in Korea capable of becoming “DeepSeek,” amid ongoing global impacts of China’s “DeepSeek.” He emphasized the need for Korea to secure 30,000 graphic processing units (GPUs) within the next one to two years to enhance AI capabilities and stated that the Ministry aims to secure 15,000 GPUs this year.
Minister Yu mentioned that Korea is well-rounded in AI development across theory, algorithms, software, and hardware, comparable to the U.S. and China, and stressed that collaboration between the government and private sector would yield high competitiveness. He also added that while DeepSeek hasn’t fundamentally changed the landscape, it has inspired domestic startups in AI research to produce significant results.
On the topic of low-cost development of DeepSeek, Minister Yu highlighted the need for a dual strategy of developing AI with low cost and power while also building high-performance AI based on strong infrastructure. He emphasized the importance of who can more quickly dominate application fields through high-performance models.
Given the rapid shift in global AI competitiveness, Minister Yu urged the acceleration of the government’s initial plan to purchase 30,000 GPUs by 2030 to be completed by late 2026 or early 2027. The Ministry aims to purchase 15,000 GPUs this year and intends to integrate them into existing data centers domestically for researchers’ use.
Furthermore, Minister Yu disclosed that a meeting with Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, who visited Korea, would not occur. However, he plans to meet with Masayoshi Son, Chairman of SoftBank Group, to discuss cooperation in the AI sector soon.
The Ministry of Science and ICT also announced plans to revise operational regulations for government-funded research institutes in the science and technology sector by February. However, these revisions will not include changes to the project-based system (PBS), which has been a key aspect of research institute innovation.