Microsoft stressed an open AI ecosystem at a National Assembly event and said South Korea should focus on corporate AI transformation based on its semiconductor competitiveness rather than building a standalone large language model. A Microsoft executive said most countries have failed to develop sovereign LLMs despite heavy investment. Participants called for policy changes on interoperability, data use and certification. South Korean ministries said they share the direction but need public consensus and prioritisation.

South Korea\'s second round of government support for graphics processing units has attracted five bidders, including first-round winner Naver Cloud and first-round loser Coupang, both re-entering. KT Cloud, Samsung SDS and Elice Group joined as new participants. The science ministry set evaluation criteria including economic feasibility, large scale, direct clustering, latest GPUs and service launch within the year. Officials plan evaluations and site inspections in April and May before selecting operators in May.