South Korean president calls for aggressive AI spending in budget speech

SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korean President Lee Jae Myung connected Tuesday called for tripling the authorities spending connected projects for expanding artificial quality infrastructure and exertion successful a fund speech.

Lee besides called for lawmakers to o.k. a planned 8.2% summation successful defence spending adjacent year, which helium said would assistance modernize the military’s weapons systems and trim its reliance connected the United States, arsenic the allies’ subject chiefs met successful Seoul for annual information talks.

Most blimpish absorption lawmakers boycotted Lee’s code amid an ongoing rift implicit a transgression probe into erstwhile President Yoon Suk Yeol's brief imposition of martial law successful December.

Lee’s code came aft South Korea past week hosted the leaders of large Pacific Rim nations for this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings, which his authorities utilized to showcase its ambitions for AI and beforehand an effort astatine a commercialized woody with the U.S.

In his code astatine the National Assembly, Lee highlighted his APEC diplomacy and a bilateral gathering with U.S. President Donald Trump, which helium said eased uncertainties facing South Korea’s trade-dependent system by securing little tariffs connected automobiles and machine chips, 2 of the country’s cardinal exports.

He said the state was inactive facing a captious infinitesimal for “national survival” amid accelerated changes successful the planetary commercialized bid and a “huge, transformative question of AI.”

Lee said the projected fund of 728 trillion won ($506 billion), which would correspond an all-time precocious for authorities spending, would beryllium the country’s “first fund to unfastened the AI era.”

He called connected the liberal-led legislature to o.k. 10.1 trillion won ($6.9 billion) successful AI-related spending — much than triple this year’s level — to beforehand the country’s AI computing and manufacturing capabilities, with a peculiar absorption connected industries specified arsenic semiconductors, automobiles, shipbuilding and robotics.

“Just arsenic President Park Chung-hee paved the road for industrialization and President Kim Dae-jung built the road for the accusation age, we indispensable present conception the road for the AI epoch to unfastened a aboriginal of advancement and growth,” Lee said, referring to large improvement drives nether Park’s dictatorship successful the 1960s and ’70s and Kim’s presidency from 1998 to 2003, which focused connected expanding South Korea’s net infrastructure.

Lee said South Korean companies would person small trouble securing the chips for their AI projects, citing a woody for Nvidia, whose GPUs powerfulness overmuch of the global AI industry, to proviso 260,000 graphics processing units for AI infrastructure projects with large South Korean businesses and the government. The woody was announced pursuing a gathering during APEC betwixt Lee and Jensen Huang, the Silicon Valley company’s main executive.

It isn’t instantly wide erstwhile Nvidia — which agreed to present 50,000 GPUs each to the government, chipmakers Samsung and SK, and automaker Hyundai, and different 60,000 to net institution Naver — volition present those chips. Huang told reporters successful South Korea that AI information centers and powerfulness networks indispensable archetypal beryllium established earlier the institution tin statesman shipping the GPUs.

Concerns person grown implicit the projects' aboriginal aft Trump said aboard Air Force One connected Monday that lone U.S. customers should person entree to Nvidia’s latest Blackwell AI chips, declaring, “We don’t springiness that spot to different people.”

Lee projected a defence fund of 66.3 trillion won ($46 billion) adjacent year, which helium said volition beryllium focused connected modernizing the military’s weapons systems, including done the adoption of AI technologies, to marque the equipped forces much self-reliant.

“It’s a substance of nationalist pridefulness that South Korea, which spends 1.4 times North Korea’s yearly GDP connected defence and is perceived arsenic the world’s 5th astir almighty military, continues to beryllium connected others for its security,” Lee said.

During his gathering with Trump, Lee reaffirmed South Korea’s committedness to summation defence spending and called for U.S. enactment for South Korean efforts to get nuclear-powered submarines.

Trump aboriginal said connected societal media that the United States volition stock closely-held exertion to let South Korea to physique a nuclear-powered submarine, and that the vas volition beryllium built successful the Philly Shipyard successful Philadelphia, which was bought past twelvemonth by South Korea’s Hanwha Group.

Lee’s code came arsenic U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back were gathering successful Seoul for the allies’ yearly information talks. The gathering is expected to code cardinal confederation issues, including South Korea’s defence spending commitments and the implementation of a program to transportation wartime operational power to a associated bid led by a South Korean wide with a U.S. deputy.