NHN Co., Ltd. Selected as Operator for Gwangju AI Specialized Data Center Project

Gwangju City Hall

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 3rd that it has selected NHN Co., Ltd. as the business operator for the construction and operation of a data center, which will be the core facility of the Gwangju Artificial Intelligence Complex under the Artificial Intelligence Industry Convergence Project Group, and will begin construction this month to start full-scale support services for companies.

Since the ‘Gwangju Artificial Intelligence Complex Development Project’ was selected as a preliminary feasibility exemption project in 2019, Gwangju City has been accelerating efforts, starting with a vision declaration ceremony in January last year to open the era of AI-centered Gwangju.

The data center, with a total project cost of 92.3 billion KRW, will be built in the Advanced 3 District with computing power of 88.5 PF (petaflops) and storage capacity of 107 PB (petabytes), providing AI research and development capabilities to startups, small and medium-sized enterprises, mid-sized companies, research institutes, and universities starting this year.

Until 2022, NHN Co., Ltd. will provide 8.85 PF and 10.7 PB through its cloud services, and from the end of 2022, when the data center building is completed, it will establish and provide an 88.5 PF scale system at the ‘Gwangju Artificial Intelligence Specialized Data Center.’

Additionally, 20 PF will be built as HPC (High-Performance Computing) to enable deep learning training and data analysis/utilization of massive data in a short time, and it is expected that not only small and medium-sized enterprises but also large corporations will actively move to Gwangju to utilize this.

Furthermore, all development tools necessary for AI service and product development, as well as data lakes and big data functions required for data collection, processing, and analysis, will be provided to companies using the data center starting this year.

To this end, NHN Co., Ltd. will develop its own services by 2023 to support corporate research and development activities.

In particular, by 2023, NHN will establish an AI research and development center in Gwangju and will spare no support for all research and development necessary for its own needs as well as for fostering the Gwangju AI industry ecosystem, hiring more than 30 local talents annually until 2029.

Along with this, they will jointly promote ▲ activities to attract excellent AI companies and operate corporate support programs (commercialization support, direct investment, etc.) ▲ development and provision of the Gwangju AI demonstration city platform ▲ planning and joint discovery of AI projects with local companies, Gwangju City, and the government.

Jung Woo-jin, CEO of NHN Co., Ltd., said, “It is an honor to participate as a business operator in a national project to foster the AI industry,” adding, “We will mobilize all the capabilities NHN has to nurture and develop the domestic cloud industry and Gwangju’s AI industry.”

Mayor Lee Yong-seop said, “The year 2021, when data center services are fully provided, will be the first year opening the AI era in Gwangju,” and added, “We will mobilize all of Gwangju’s capabilities centered on the complex to support the 65 companies that have relocated or planned to relocate to Gwangju, as well as startups and small and medium-sized enterprises, so they can realize their dreams.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.