The Ministry of Science and ICT said on Monday it held an integrated briefing session for the K-Global Project at the EL Tower in Seoul's Yangjae district.

The K-Global Project is an integrated support system that brings together AI and digital innovation business support programmes scattered across the government and private sector under a single brand. Companies can check the information they need in one place.

About 500 people from AI and digital startups attended the session, reviewing government and private support programmes and visiting consultation booths.

The ministry said a survey of companies that took part in the K-Global Project last year, based on responses from 285 firms, showed the amount of investment raised increased 63 percent from a year earlier by the third quarter of 2025. The number of jobs rose 3.1 percent and patent applications increased 4.7 percent.

This year, the ministry will run the K-Global Project with 31 programmes worth 144.1 billion won, including mentoring, scale-up and overseas expansion support, as well as infrastructure support such as office space and testbeds, and AI, data and cloud services.

In particular, it created a new programme called AX Innovation Firms Creative Technology Development, under which AI companies develop and demonstrate technology with demand-side organisations. It also created a new programme called ICT Strategic Convergence R&D Voucher Support, which helps small and mid-sized companies secure ICT technology. It said some additional new programmes will be announced later on the K-Global Project website.

Private-sector participation also expanded. Newly joining were NVIDIA, the Asan Nanum Foundation and Hana Bank, in addition to existing participants such as Naver Cloud, Google, the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund, Shinhan Financial Group and Lotte Ventures. As a result, startups will be able to take part in a wider range of incubation and development programmes.

Lee Do-gyu (이도규), head of the ministry's ICT Policy Office, said, "The Ministry of Science and ICT will continue to bring together private and government capabilities to support innovative companies so they can grow into key players leading a leap forward in the AI and digital economy."