South Korea plans record AI budget in 2027

South Korea plans record investments of 21.3 trillion won (14.3 billion euros) for artificial intelligence and semiconductors in its budget for 2027, President Lee Jae Myung announced on Monday. “We will allocate 21.

300 billion won for semiconductors, physical AI and AI data centers... almost double this year's amount,” Lee said in a speech to Parliament.

He said the government would invest 4.7 trillion won (nearly 3.16 billion euros) to support “cutting-edge AI development projects, with the aim of achieving world-leading performance for our own AI model, a national strategic asset.” This proposal was made during a speech presenting his government's spending plans for 2027.

In total, the proposed budget amounts to 821 trillion won, an increase of 12.8 percent from the 2026 budget, making it the largest proposed budget on record. Lee Jae Myung must now obtain the adoption of the draft budget by the National Assembly, which should be the case given the majority his party has.

Regarding the defense budget, the center-left South Korean president indicated that his government wanted an increase of 8.2% compared to this year, to reach 73.3 trillion won. The government will focus on acquiring nuclear-powered submarines and KF-21 fighter jets, and “rapidly transforming our armed forces into an elite intelligent force by establishing integrated, manned and unmanned systems based on AI, robots and drones,” Lee Jae Myung also indicated.

South Korea had already pledged to triple its spending on AI this year, aiming to join the United States and China among the world's major artificial intelligence powers. Two South Korean flagships, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, are among the companies that dominate the global market for the production of advanced memory chips, essential to the operation of AI systems.

Machine-translated from French