South Korea Nearly Doubles 2027 AI and Chip Spending to 21.3 Trillion Won, With 4.7 Trillion for a Sovereign Frontier Model and 10,000 Vera Rubin GPUs
In his 2027 budget address to the National Assembly on November 2, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung proposed a record 820.9 trillion won budget (+12.8%), with 21.3 trillion won (about $16B) for semiconductors, physical AI, AI data centers and AI, nearly double the 10.8 trillion won in 2026. The Ministry of Planning and Budget document allocates 4.7 trillion won to a sovereign AI model aiming for world-leading performance, including the purchase of 10,000 Vera Rubin GPUs. Parliament still has to pass the budget.
Key Takeaways
- The three mega-projects plus AI rise from 10.8 to 21.3 trillion won, up 97.2%; the total budget is 820.9 trillion won, up 12.8% (official budget document).
- The 4.7 trillion won frontier AI program buys 10,000 Vera Rubin GPUs (3.9T won), training data (0.8T won), and recruits 20 top overseas researchers (25B won).
- Until then, about 7,000 government-owned GPUs go first, plus about 8,000 leased from industry and academia; companies are picked by open competition and the state invests as an equity holder.
- A new 0.25 trillion won AI for All program builds public AI agents on the domestic model that can handle ID documents, KTX train bookings and passport renewals; AI education gets 2.1T won for 3.9 million people.
- Another 70B won funds a dedicated AI security model and 50B won subsidizes AI security subscriptions for 10,000 SMEs; physical AI rises from 0.9T to 3.1T won.
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