The Korean government will aggressively push forward with large-scale mega projects to foster physical AI as an irreplaceable national strategic industry and expand large-scale AI data center infrastructure.
AI robots, represented by humanoids, are a core industry of physical AI that will bring about a major transformation in industry and daily life.
The Korean government views the present moment as high time for Korea becoming a powerhouse in AI robots.
Judging that the next three years are a golden time that will determine the direction of global leadership, the Korean government has set a goal to leap to become the global No. 1 physical AI leader by 2030 through bold investment and all-out support.
To this end, the Korean government announced the 3M Strategy, which aims to make Korea one of the global top three AI robot leaders.
First, it will accelerate manufacturing AI transformation (M.AX). Centered on the M.AX Alliance which involves over 1,500 organizations in related fields such as robotics, AI, and demand-driven manufacturing, it will develop industry-specific AI robots and deploy more than 1,000 units to industrial sites annually.
Second, the Korean government will secure competitiveness in core elemental technologies (Master).
By establishing data factories for 10 major industries to secure training data, it will reduce Korea’s dependence on foreign countries for robot foundation models.
Furthermore, it will expand R&D investment in three vulnerable components — actuators, robot hands, and sensors — which have low localization rates, and train 10,000 skilled professionals over five years through initiatives such as the selection of graduate schools specializing in robotics.
Third, in response to the trend of mass production of humanoid robots in competitors like China, the Korean government will establish a regionally-focused, rapid mass production system (Mass Production).
Using investment from the Hyundai Motor Group as a catalyst, it will establish a robot foundry and parts cluster in Saemangeum and support technology development and demonstration to help transform automotive and home appliance parts companies in the Daegu-Gyeongbuk region into robot parts manufacturers.
A poster to publicize the three mega projects “for Korea’s Great Leap Forward,” announced by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources. (Photo: MOTIR)
In addition, the Korean government will create an initial market by preemptively purchasing robots for education, national defense, and disaster response, and will support new and expansion investment funds through the National Growth Fund among others.
Along with this, a comprehensive data management system suitable for the era of physical AI will be established.
Infrastructure for production and aggregation of data that meticulously combines physical laws and motions will be created.
Investment will be concentrated on generative systems, such as world models, that generate synthetic data based on physical laws to aid in learning and decision-making.
Furthermore, within three years, a world-class proprietary physical AI foundation model capable of planning and performing complex tasks autonomously like a human will be developed, and large-scale demonstrations will be promoted across all sectors — manufacturing, care, agriculture, safety, and national defense — to promote the export of full-stack platforms and services.
Meanwhile, projects to build AI data centers, which serve as the core heart of AI growth, will also be carried out on a large scale.
With approximately $5.5 trillion in investment projected for the global AI data center market by 2030, the Korean government, in cooperation with SK, GS, and Naver, will attract and execute approximately 550 trillion won in investment in the first phase to build mammoth-sized data centers.
The Korean government will establish an AI data center cluster that includes a super-large testbed and form an alliance of demand companies to support the global expansion of Korea’s power and cooling solutions.
The plan is to preempt the inference-centric AI semiconductor market, led by domestic AI semiconductors and secure technological capabilities to turn data centers into Korea’s export industry.
Through this project, the Korean government will secure large-scale token production capabilities and realize “AI basic society,” where all citizens can enjoy chat services and agentic AI services.
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