Ulsan City Accelerates Its Push to Become the "AI Capital"

Ulsan City has officially begun its efforts to become the "AI Capital."

On August 12 at 3 p.m., the city announced the launch of the "Ulsan Artificial Intelligence Committee" and held its first meeting in the main conference room on the second floor of City Hall, establishing a public-private partnership (governance) system to implement Ulsan-style AI strategies.

The newly launched "Ulsan Artificial Intelligence Committee" is composed of 20 experts from various fields, including manufacturing, energy, information and communications, and education.

The committee members will play a role in detailing major policy tasks and proposing implementation strategies for the development of Ulsan-style AI industries, particularly in light of the upcoming SK-AWS AI Data Center and the enforcement of the Artificial Intelligence Basic Act in January next year.

Attending the event are Mayor Kim Doo-gyeom, representatives from the Ulsan Information Industry Promotion Agency, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), University of Ulsan, Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, Ulsan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, SK Telecom, and more than 20 experts from industry, academia, research, and government sectors.

During the meeting, appointment letters will be presented to the committee members, the committee's operational direction will be shared, and field-oriented opinions on Ulsan's strengths and areas for improvement will be exchanged.

In particular, the meeting will focus on Ulsan-style AI strategy directions linked to the National Policy Planning Committee's policy guidelines, including: fostering industry clusters centered on the AI data center; expanding AI-based infrastructure across various sectors; and advancing AI talent development systems.

Mayor Kim Doo-gyeom stated, "Ulsan is the ideal location to lead a major transformation toward AI-based industries by adding data infrastructure to its manufacturing foundation. We will integrate AI technologies into our core industries to achieve tangible results and play a national role in the field of manufacturing AI."

Previously, in June, Ulsan City succeeded in attracting a dedicated AI data center with a total investment of KRW 7 trillion from SK Telecom and Amazon Web Services.

The data center, scheduled to break ground in August, will begin its first phase of operations in 2027 with a 41 MW capacity and is expected to be fully completed by 2029 as a high-performance GPU-based facility with a total capacity of 103 MW.

This facility will serve as a massive AI computing hub covering the Asia-Pacific region and is expected to significantly elevate Ulsan's status as a key node in Amazon Web Services (AWS)'s AI cloud network.

Ulsan City plans to strategically link this data center with local industries, rather than treating it as mere infrastructure.

Currently, through a study on "Utilization Plans for the AI Data Center," the city is preparing: AI application models for each industry; strategies to attract domestic and international AI companies; industry-academia-research collaboration models; and plans to link with regulatory free zones.

Based on the results of this study, the city aims to proactively respond to national AI hub policies and the enforcement of the Artificial Intelligence Basic Act, while concretizing the Ulsan-style AI industrial ecosystem.

Going forward, Ulsan City will continue to use the Artificial Intelligence Committee as a focal point for policy consultation, implementation monitoring, and the identification of new projects. The city also plans to sequentially carry out a variety of follow-up events, including the official declaration of Ulsan as the AI Capital, forums, academic conferences, and investment briefings for attracting companies.

Vision and Implementation Strategy.

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