The government will triple spending on artificial intelligence and make its biggest defence budget increase in six years, President Lee Jae-Myung said in his annual parliamentary budget speech.
Lee said 10.1 trillion won (RM29.4bil) would go towards “a major transformation aimed at propelling South Korea into the ranks of the world’s top three AI powers” alongside the United States and China.
“We will significantly expand investment to usher in the ‘AI era’,” he said, noting the amount was more than three times the current year’s AI-related budget.
Overall, the budget plan totals 728 trillion won, an 8.1% increase from this year.
On the defence budget, the president said his government wants to see an 8.2% increase from this year to 66.3 trillion won.
If passed, it will mark the highest defence spending increase since 2019.
“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.
Of next year’s AI budget, 2.6 trillion won “will be invested in introducing AI across industry, daily life and the public sector, while 7.5 trillion won will go towards talent development and infrastructure building”, Lee said.
South Korea is home to two of the world’s leading memory chip makers, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.
The two tech giants manufacture chips essential for AI products and the power-hungry data centres that the fast-evolving industry relies on.
Jensen Huang, the CEO of US chip titan Nvidia, announced last week plans to supply 260,000 of the firm’s most advanced chips to South Korea, with recipients including Samsung, SK Group and Hyundai Motor Group. — AFP
