2.4 trillion won investment to be carried out by Samsung SDS consortium
Aerial rendering of the national AI computing center
The national AI computing center being developed by a Samsung SDS-led consortium in Haenam, South Jeolla Province, will hold a groundbreaking ceremony Monday, marking the formal start of construction.
The Ministry of Science and ICT and Korea AI Computing Center (KOACC) will host the ceremony at 2 p.m. Monday at the construction site within the Solaseado enterprise city in Haenam, according to the South Jeolla-Gwangju Special Metropolitan City.
About 200 people are expected to attend, including South Jeolla-Gwangju Special Metropolitan City Mayor Min Hyeong-bae, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Gyeong-hun, Haenam-gun County Chief Myeong Hyeon-gwan, local Assembly members, and representatives from private consortium partners Samsung SDS, Naver Cloud, Kakao and KT Corp.
The center plans to install 15,000 GPUs by 2028 and expand that capacity to 50,000 units in phases by 2030.
It will serve as a national AI computing hub supporting the training and research of large-scale AI models.
The facility, to be built in Guseong-ri, Sani-myeon, Haenam-gun within the Solaseado enterprise city, will receive 2.4 trillion won ($1.7 billion) in investment. It will occupy a 48,996-square-meter site with a total floor area of 16,978 square meters across two above-ground floors, housing a data building, operations building and ancillary structures.
The center will initially operate at 40 megawatts of power capacity, with plans to add another 40 megawatts for a total of 80 megawatts.
The government selected the Samsung SDS consortium as the preferred negotiating partner for the national AI computing center project.
The consortium is led by Samsung SDS and includes Naver Cloud, Samsung C&T, Kakao, Samsung Electronics, KT Corp, Clush and Jeonnam Development Corp.
The South Jeolla-Gwangju Special Metropolitan City expects the center to generate 6.4 trillion won in economic ripple effects and create 19,500 jobs.
"Once the national AI computing center is established, we expect an ecosystem connecting universities, research institutions and businesses to take shape around Haenam's Solaseado," a city official said. "We will provide full support so that, together with the semiconductor fab planned for the former Gwangju military airport site, the area can emerge as South Korea's AI hub."
kkm9971@heraldcorp.com
