Yoo Sang-im "Must Secure 15,000 GPUs Within the Year"

"If More Budget Can Be Spent on AI, It Should Be Used"
Minister Yoo Stresses Need for 15,000 GPUs This Year and Calls for Government-Led Investment

Yoo Sang-im, Minister of Science and ICT, expressed a strong commitment to introduce 15,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) within this year to revitalize the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. The government's original plan was to secure 30,000 units by 2030.

On the 4th, at a public briefing on the progress of key tasks for this year held at the Government Seoul Office, Minister Yoo stated, "By the end of 2026, or at the latest early 2027, 30,000 GPUs should be secured," adding, "I think it would be sufficient to have about 15,000 units ready this year."

Regarding the opinion that additional budget discussions are necessary for the AI sector, Minister Yoo also expressed, "If it happens, I hope the purchase of GPUs will definitely take place."

Despite the emergence of China's 'DeepSeek,' which uses fewer GPU resources, Minister Yoo emphasized that the introduction of high-performance GPUs should not stop. Although there are about ten AI models domestically, the reality is that they are still insufficient.

When asked if there is scientific evidence supporting the quantity of 30,000 units, Minister Yoo replied, "It is said that ChatGPT was trained with 15,000 units. Anyway, a model must be created, and for that, wouldn't about twice that amount be necessary?"

He continued, "Companies cannot just buy GPUs recklessly by spending trillions of won. While giant capital like the United States does so, our companies do not have such massive capital, so the government must act as a catalyst." This suggests that if the government takes the lead, the private sector should also join in expanding GPU adoption.

Minister Yoo said, "Out of the national budget of 677 trillion won, spending about 1 trillion won on AI is not unreasonable. If more can be spent, it should be," adding, "We are persuading to use it as a catalyst to trigger the private sector."

However, Minister Yoo also expressed the position that instead of unconditionally importing GPUs from overseas companies like Nvidia, domestically developed neural processing units (NPUs) should be used in parallel. This implies that the budget could be allocated to domestic NPUs rather than purchasing all 30,000 units as GPUs.

Minister Yoo also stated, "As tremendous rapid developments are occurring in the AI field, strategies must be continuously revised and supplemented." He announced that the 'AI Computing Infrastructure Development Strategy' will be released by the end of this month. Prior to this, on the 7th, the government will hold an explanatory meeting on the National AI Computing Center project, which will invest up to 2.5 trillion won, at the Bankers Hall in Jung-gu, Seoul.

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