Gov't to begin distributing Nvidia GPUs in February

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Gov't to begin distributing Nvidia GPUs in February

Published: 18 Dec. 2025, 13:57 Updated: 18 Dec. 2025, 14:28

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Science and ICT Minister Bae Kyung-hoon speaks during a meeting at the Government Complex Seoul in central Seoul on Dec. 18. [NEWS1]

The government will begin distributing Nvidia GPUs to companies, universities and national AI projects in February of next year as part of a broader push to expand AI infrastructure through research programs supporting domestically developed neural processing unit (NPU)-based AI semiconductors and upgrades to next-generation networks.

The Ministry of Science and ICT unveiled the strategies with names that roughly translate to “K-Nvidia Fostering” and “AI Highway Completion” on Thursday at the meeting of science and technology-related ministers at the Government Complex Seoul in central Seoul on Thursday. The government is allocated to receive 52,000 GPUs from Nvidia by 2030 to support larger strategic goals, including national AI projects and foundation model development.

The government will review and approve a plan to secure and allocate advanced GPUs for "national AI innovation" and will provide about 10,000 advanced GPUs secured through this year’s first supplementary budget.

The initial 10,000 GPUs will be designed to operate as large-scale clusters, enabling training and inference of large AI models that single GPUs cannot handle.

The government will receive applicants for the GPUs through its online platform, AIinfrahub.kr, until Jan. 28, 2026. It will provide up to 256 H200 GPUs or up to 128 B200 GPUs per project for up to 12 months.

An Nvidia logo appears in this illustration from Aug. 25. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Universities and research institutes will receive the GPUs free of charge, while small- and medium-sized enterprises and startups will pay 5 to 10 percent of the market price. Companies run by young entrepreneurs will receive a 50 percent discount on their share of the cost.

The ministry will use an additional 6,120 B200 GPUs it secures later for the development of flagship national AI models, including an independent AI foundation model project.

The government also set a goal of upgrading domestically developed NPUs with strengths in inference and physical AI into AI semiconductor servers that deliver more than twice the power efficiency of foreign GPUs by 2030. Another goal is to reduce reliance on Nvidia’s proprietary parallel computing platform and application programming interface, CUDA, by developing open-source system software that allows AI models to be developed and run on domestically produced NPUs, building what so-called K-NPU software ecosystem.

It will create early demand through pilot purchases by public institutions and links to public procurement. The government will also support the commercialization of on-device AI semiconductors across key industries, including automobiles, the Internet of Things, home appliances, robotics and defense. It will also pair the effort with large-scale investment and financing, long-term equity investment in startups and tax credits for investment in NPU-based infrastructure.

The Nvidia logo, a human hand and a 3-D-printed robot hand, is seen in this illustration from Aug. 27. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

The Science Ministry additionally unveiled a network upgrade plan under a "hyper-AI network strategy” to address surging traffic and ultralow latency demands in the AI era.

The government will push for the commercialization of 6G technology by 2030 and build AI radio access networks (RAN) nationwide. It plans to install more than 500 6G-based AI-RAN sites at industrial and service hubs. As for the currently dominant 5G technology, the government will aim to fully shift 5G networks from nonstandalone to standalone mode next year and expand the country's backbone network capacity more than fourfold by 2030.

Submarine cable capacity will more than double by the same timeline, with landing points diversified to areas including the Yellow Sea and the South Sea.

By 2030, the government aims to secure a 20 percent share of the global 6G and AI network market and foster five globally competitive companies each generating more than 500 billion won ($340 million). Regulatory reforms, technology development and demand creation will accompany the technological advancements in an aim to achieve the goals.

“Through bold and pre-emptive investment and by bringing together the capabilities of industry, academia and research institutions, we will drive a resurgence of the network industry and write a second CDMA [Code Division Multiple Access] success story,” Science and ICT Minister Bae Kyung-hoon said, referring to Korea’s ambition to replicate its late-1990s success in commercializing CDMA mobile technology, when the country emerged as a global leader in telecommunications through coordinated government, industrial and academic efforts.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY JEONG JAE-HONG [[email protected]]