South Korea unveils largest AI budget in 6 years
What's the story
In a major push toward becoming a global leader in artificial intelligence (AI), South Korea has unveiled its largest defense and AI budget in six years. President Lee Jae-myung announced the allocation of 10.1 trillion won ($7 billion) during his annual parliamentary budget speech on Tuesday. The move is part of a broader strategy to compete with the US and China in the AI space.
Strategic investment
Proposal part of government's 2026 budget planning
President Lee emphasized the need for a "major transformation aimed at propelling South Korea into the ranks of the world's top three AI powers." He stressed that this investment is far greater than previous budgets. The proposal comes as part of the government's 2026 budget planning, which totals 728 trillion won—an 8.1% increase from this year. However, it still needs parliamentary approval to be fully realized.
Military modernization
Defense budget to increase by 8% as well
Along with the AI budget, President Lee also proposed an 8.2% increase in the defense budget from this year to 66.3 trillion won. He said his government plans to modernize conventional weapons systems into advanced ones suitable for the AI era. "We will overhaul conventional weapons systems into state-of-the-art systems suited for the AI era and swiftly transform our military into an elite, smart force," Lee said during his speech.
Tech hub
NVIDIA CEO announces plans to supply chips to South Korea
South Korea is home to some of the world's biggest memory chip manufacturers (Samsung and SK Hynix), which are crucial for AI products and data centers. Jensen Huang, CEO of US chip giant NVIDIA, has also announced plans to supply 260,000 of his company's most advanced chips to South Korea.