South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT has officially launched the AI Network Alliance (AINA), a public-private consultative body involving government, industry, academia and research aimed at securing leadership in next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) network industries.

The ministry held the AINA launch ceremony on March 4 local time at MWC 2026 in Barcelona, Spain. Thirty-four companies and institutions from South Korea and abroad are participating, including KT (chair company), SK Telecom and LG Uplus, as well as Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Ericsson and Nokia.

AINA set a target of reaching 20 percent market share in the next-generation mobile communications market by 2030. The current share is around 5 percent. To that end, it will present a technology development roadmap based on industry demand, create demand linked to the AI ecosystem, and lead cooperation with global companies and organisations.

The event also included the signing of a cooperation memorandum of understanding between AINA, the AI-RAN Alliance and the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). A follow-up implementation meeting was also held for an AI-RAN cooperation MOU signed between Korea industry-academia-research (Korea Team) and Nvidia in October last year on the sidelines of APEC. Korea Team members including Samsung Electronics and Nvidia Vice President Ronnie Vasishta agreed to produce visible results from cooperation in the first half of the year.

The government plans to invest 128.7 billion won from this year in AI-RAN technology development and industrial promotion. From 2027, it will also 추진 an "AI-on-RAN" project that combines AI computing functions with base station infrastructure.

Choi Woo-hyuk (최우혁), director general for information protection and network policy at the ministry, said, "We will make 2026 the first year of a major leap forward for South Korea's AI networks and provide all-around support."