South Korea, together with Samsung, SK and other companies, launched a 312 trillion won investment plan, focusing on the semiconductor and aerospace industries.
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The South Korean government is considering extending the sovereign AI core GPU guarantee project, with a budget of up to 4 trillion won next year.
According to Odaily Odaily, the South Korean government is considering extending its support project for GPUs, a core resource for AI. On July 7th, industry sources indicated that the Ministry of Science and ICT is investigating the capacity of major South Korean cloud service providers to build additional GPUs, aiming to extend the "AI Computing Resource Utilization Infrastructure Enhancement Project." The core of this project involves government-funded purchases of GPUs, deployment in cloud service provider data centers, and support for industry-academia-research collaboration. Last year, the South Korean government allocated a budget of 1 trillion won, and this year it allocated 2 trillion won, securing over 20,000 GPUs. The project was originally scheduled to end this year, but with the surge in demand for advanced resources such as NVIDIA's next-generation GPU Vera Rubin, the South Korean government is developing comprehensive countermeasures, including data center efficiency optimization and new space security plans. It is reportedly already applying to the Planning and Budget Office for a "limited additional budget" for GPU security. Industry estimates suggest that, considering this year's GPU security budget and the government's intentions, next year's budget could reach a maximum of approximately 4 trillion won. Industry experts say that compared to the GPU supply itself, "equipment installation space" will be the key to the success or failure of the project, because running thousands of high-performance GPUs simultaneously requires a large power supply and advanced cooling systems, and the equipment installation space held by South Korean companies is nearing saturation. (ETNews Electronics)
South Korea plans to invest 5 trillion won in excess tax revenue from semiconductors to develop "sovereign AI" and purchase 10,000 GPUs to support a single team.
According to Beating's monitoring, the Korea Economic Daily revealed that South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT is in discussions with the Presidential Office and the Ministry of Finance, planning to utilize approximately 5 trillion won in excess tax revenue from the semiconductor industry to purchase about 10,000 of NVIDIA's most advanced Vera Rubin superchip GPU modules this year. This investment will be used to support elite teams developing world-class "sovereign AI" models. This decision stems directly from the sense of crisis caused by US export controls on cutting-edge AI models—Anthropic's Fable 5 and OpenAI's GPT-5.6 have been restricted from external access, forcing South Korean companies to urgently modify systems built on these models. The concept of "national strategic assetization" of AI models has thus become a reality. Currently, although four teams in South Korea—LG AI Research Institute, SK Telecom, Upstage, and Motif Technologies—are advancing independent basic model projects, each team only receives support from 700 to 800 GPUs. This dispersed investment makes it difficult to compete with globally leading models that utilize tens of thousands of GPUs. The government has therefore decided to shift to a "selection and concentration" strategy, allocating 10,000 GPUs to the best teams at once, and plans to include special funds in the supplementary budget for attracting top overseas AI talent. South Korean President Lee Jae-myung publicly stated last month that the GPU procurement pace was too slow and demanded that related funds be ensured when compiling the supplementary budget. The current global competitive window is extremely short, with companies like Anthropic and OpenAI iterating new models weekly. France, with its single-focus strategy, has surpassed Meta to become the seventh largest AI provider globally, thanks to Mistral AI. If South Korea cannot catch up in the short term, it risks becoming an "AI vassal state." The South Korean semiconductor academic community has given this positive feedback, believing that investing the funds gained from hardware prosperity into building software competitiveness is essentially an investment in the country's future. --------------------------------- Click the original link below to join the Beating · Lark AI news channel for 24/7 monitoring of global AI hotspots and news.
KT, a South Korean telecommunications company, plans to invest 18 trillion won to advance its Token Factory and stablecoin businesses.
According to a report by Digital Daily, South Korean telecom operator KT announced that it will invest approximately 18 trillion won over the next three years, with 12 trillion won allocated to information security, IT, and networks, and 6 trillion won to AI infrastructure, while also advancing its Token Factory and stablecoin businesses. KT plans to combine its 1GW-scale AI data center, token optimization engine, and billing and settlement capabilities to create a Token Factory that supports token generation, intermediation, and billing. Simultaneously, it intends to enter the stablecoin digital financial platform market, leveraging K Bank's 16 million customers, BC Card's 3.5 million merchants, and KT's network and security infrastructure to cover the entire ecosystem from issuance and custody to settlement and actual use.
South Korea officially launched a 24-hour trading mechanism for the Korean won spot foreign exchange market.
Odaily Odaily reports that South Korea officially launched a 24-hour spot USD/KRW trading mechanism on Monday to enhance the convertibility of the won and strive for developed market status in the MSCI World Index. Under the new mechanism, the South Korean spot foreign exchange market will open at 6:00 AM every Monday and trade continuously until 6:00 AM on Saturday, achieving 120 hours of continuous trading per week. South Korean Finance Minister Koo Yoon-cheol stated that this move will be "an important starting point for the won's globalization." (Reuters)
South Korean media: Samsung and other South Korean companies claim they have not received formal communication; the OUSD alliance's list of "140 partners" sparks controversy.
PANews reported on July 3 that, according to The Chosun Ilbo, the recent announcement by the OUSD alliance of over 140 partners has sparked questions from South Korean companies. Several South Korean companies, including Samsung, stated that they had not received formal prior consultation and were unclear about their specific roles within the alliance. These companies expressed confusion about being included on the partner list, leading the market to question OUSD's transparency and authorization process in disclosing its partners.
OUSD claims that over 140 companies participated, but several South Korean companies, including Samsung Electronics, stated that they had not formally negotiated with the issuer.
BlockBeats reported on July 3 that Open Standard, a global stablecoin consortium, recently announced the launch of its USD stablecoin, OpenUSD (OUSD), with over 140 global financial and payment companies, including Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock, Samsung Electronics, and Dunamu, participating. The token is planned for launch within the year. However, several South Korean companies stated that they have not had formal negotiations with the OUSD issuer. A Samsung Electronics representative stated, "There have been no formal negotiations, and we don't know what role we will play in the consortium." Shinhan Financial Group, Dunamu, and K Bank also stated that Open Standard inquired about their interest in participating, and the companies only responded that they could conduct a simple evaluation, but their names were subsequently added to the consortium's member list. One company representative stated that they only learned of their company's inclusion in the OUSD consortium through the news, and "they only gave a perfunctory reply to Open Standard's inquiry about their participation, saying they would consider it if things went smoothly," adding that they were confused about being included on the member list. OUSD adopts an open infrastructure model, aiming to be jointly operated by companies that actually provide payment, remittance, and settlement services. According to the introduction, participating companies can mint 1 OUSD after depositing $1 into the Open Standard reserve account; after returning 1 OUSD, they can redeem $1 from the reserve account. OUSD alliance participants can mint and redeem OUSD without fees or restrictions, and the plan is to distribute the proceeds from reserve utilization to network participants after deducting a small management fee. (ChosunBiz)