South Korea unveils plans for AI complex in Gwangju

The site is scheduled for completion in 2024

The South Korean government is set to invest $100 million on its under-construction AI complex in Gwangju.

The complex is to house a data center and facilities specifically related to automotive and energy, two sectors that the city’s industrial complex plays home to.

The country’s science minister said that work on the site in Gwangju, 200 miles from Seoul, would focus on completing its data center.

The Korean government said it would spend more than $90 million this year, for construction on the data center, sourcing computing equipment and hiring more than 1,000 AI experts.

The data center would house a computational capacity of 88.5 petaflops and 107 petabytes of storage space.

The ground was broken on the center last November, with the complex also including offices for 80 companies.

The complex is expected to be completed by 2024, with the country’s science ministry confirming that a second, similar project will begin in 2025, with the intent of making Gwangju a global hub for AI.

“As the AI-based core infrastructure of the Republic of Korea, Gwangju's AI industrial convergence complex is expected to become a forward base, helping Korea leap beyond the information and communications powerhouse in the post-COVID-19 era into an AI powerhouse,” president Moon Jae-in said last year.

Images: Invest Korea Week 2021