The Ministry of Science and ICT said on Wednesday it will solicit bids from private cloud service providers (CSPs) to secure, build and operate advanced graphics processing units (GPUs) to build an "AI highway," a key infrastructure project aimed at making South Korea one of the world’s three leading artificial intelligence powers.

The government plans to lower barriers for private-sector AI efforts with a 2.08 trillion won pump-priming investment this year, after securing 13,000 advanced GPUs with a 1.4 trillion won supplementary budget last year. The tender will run until 3 p.m. on April 13 and is open to operators able to provide and run cloud-based GPU services in South Korea.

Companies seeking to participate must present detailed plans to secure data centre space and to procure and deploy GPUs, as well as plans for operating GPU services. The government plans to select a CSP that can stably provide the latest high-performance, large-scale infrastructure even amid conditions such as the launch of expensive next-generation GPUs and rising memory prices.

It will comprehensively assess targets for high performance relative to the budget, plans to build large-scale clustering and to supply the latest GPU models (Blackwell-class or higher, with preference if Vera Rubin and other options are proposed), the share of resources for government use, and capabilities in security and stability.

The ministry will hold a briefing on the tender’s details at 2 p.m. on March 20 at Posco Tower Yeoksam. It will post specific information related to the tender on the websites of the ministry and the Information and Communication Industry Promotion Agency.

Bae Kyung-hoon (배경훈), deputy prime minister and minister of science and ICT, said, "We will support more companies and researchers so they can implement good ideas with AI by securing additional advanced GPUs, and the government will run alongside them so more teams can take on the challenge."