South Korea plans AI data center – a small
In order to remain competitive in the AI race, the South Korean government wants to set up an AI data center. A rather modest one compared to US projects.
H100 accelerator from Nvidia
(Image: Nvidia)
The South Korean government wants to set up a national data center for artificial intelligence (AI) and purchase high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) for this purpose. This will enable the country to remain competitive in the field of AI.
According to the British news agency Reuters, the country wants to set up the data center in a cooperation between the state and the private sector. A total of 10,000 GPUs are to be purchased for this purpose. It is still unclear which GPUs South Korea intends to use. The current market leader in this area is the US company Nvidia.
The AI competition is getting tougher
Competition for supremacy in the AI industry is becoming increasingly fierce, said interim president Choi Sang-mok. It is shifting from competition between companies to the national level.
The background to this is that the US government under President Donald Trump has announced further export restrictions on high-performance chips. This also includes GPUs, which are required for AI applications. However, South Korea belongs to a group of countries that are less affected by this. Quantity restrictions apply to others. Some countries, including China, Iran and Russia, are not allowed to export them at all.
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However, the quantity of GPUs that the South Korean government wants to secure is quite modest. Microsoft is one of the major buyers of Nvidia GPUs: the US company bought an estimated half a billion units for around 15 billion US dollars last year. Hundreds of thousands of these chips are also needed for the AI monster project Stargate in the USA.
(wpl)
