The emergence of the Chinese AI service DeepSeek has led to calls for stronger AI infrastructure in South Korea.

DeepSeek’s recent advancements in AI models, which are reportedly on par with ChatGPT and at significantly lower costs, have raised concerns among South Korean developers about competition in the global market.

On Feb.6, South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT met with key AI industry players, including Naver, Kakao, LG AI Research, SK Telecom, and KT, to discuss the need for stronger government investment in AI infrastructure.

Korean developers, facing limitations in advanced GPU access, are concerned about their position in the global AI race.

Ha Jung-woo, Head of AI innovation at Naver Cloud, pointed out that acquiring 20,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs would cost around 1 trillion won (US$690 billion). This could be a significant burden for many companies.

Currently, Korea has only 1,961 H100 processors, in contrast to larger purchases by global competitors such as Microsoft and Tencent.

In response, the Korean government has announced plans to enhance AI infrastructure, including purchasing of 30,000 advanced Nvidia GPUs by 2026, with 15,000 expected this year.