South Korea Breaks Ground on National AI Computing Center in Haenam with $1.8 Billion Investment

South Korea has broken ground on its National AI Computing Center in Haenam, South Jeolla Province, marking the start of a 2.5 trillion won ($1.8 billion) project. Managed by the public-private joint venture KOACC, which is led by a Samsung SDS consortium, the center is a core hub for the government's 'AI Highway' strategy. The facility aims to secure 15,000 advanced GPUs by 2028 and expand to 50,000 by 2030, while providing early computing access in 2027 and supporting domestic AI semiconductor R&D.

National AI Computing Center groundbreaking

• ▪The Ministry of Science and ICT held a groundbreaking ceremony on August 3, 2026, for the National AI Computing Center at the Solaseado site in Haenam County, South Jeolla Province
• ▪The National AI Computing Center project involves a total investment of 2.5 trillion won, approximately $1.8 billion, to build a facility with a total floor area of 16,978 square meters

KOACC consortium funding structure

• ▪The Korea AI Computing Center Co Ltd, known as KOACC, was established in June 2026 as a public-private joint venture to handle the construction and operations of the National AI Computing Center
• ▪KOACC has an initial capital of 400 billion won, with the private sector contributing 284 billion won and the public sector contributing 116 billion won
• ▪The Samsung SDS consortium, which includes Samsung SDS, Naver Cloud, Samsung C&T, Kakao, Samsung Electronics, and KT, was selected as the operator after submitting a sole bid for the Haenam location
• ▪Samsung SDS is the largest shareholder in KOACC with a 30% stake from a 120 billion won investment, while Naver Cloud holds a 26.1% stake from a 104.4 billion won investment

GPU infrastructure expansion timeline

• ▪The National AI Computing Center aims to establish computing infrastructure with 15,000 advanced graphics processing units by 2028, with plans to expand to 50,000 graphics processing units by 2030
• ▪To address urgent computing demand, the government will deploy some AI computing resources early at a Samsung SDS data center starting in 2027, ahead of the center's 2028 completion

Domestic AI semiconductor R&D support

• ▪The National AI Computing Center will establish an R&D zone to provide a validation environment for the design, prototyping, and performance verification of domestically produced AI semiconductors
• ▪The Ministry of Science and ICT will collaborate with the Financial Services Commission to review policy support, including demand matching and funding, for the initial operation of the center

AI Highway strategy

• ▪The National AI Computing Center is a core infrastructure component of the South Korean government's 'AI Highway' strategy to secure advanced computing resources for industry, academia, and research
• ▪The National AI Computing Center is designed to support the training and research of hyperscale AI models and address the shortage of computing infrastructure in South Korea's AI industry

Haenam regional development hub

• ▪The National AI Computing Center will serve as a key hub of the Solaseado Data Center Park in Haenam, which is expected to attract related AI semiconductor, cloud, and software companies
• ▪KOACC has completed an electricity usage application with Korea Electric Power Corporation and is constructing water supply pipelines to secure the necessary power and water for the center's operations