The government will inject money from the Public Growth Fund into the project to build a "national AI computing centre". The aim is to support the creation of a national AI infrastructure with 15,000 artificial intelligence (AI) chips and expand the domestic base for AI research and development. A direct investment of 100 billion won from the Advanced Strategic Industries Fund in Upstage was also approved to secure sovereign AI.

The Financial Services Commission said on Saturday that the Public Growth Fund Investment Deliberation Committee meeting held on April 30 approved a total of four megaprojects, including an infrastructure investment for the national AI computing centre, and one funding support plan for regional small and medium-sized and mid-sized firms. The Public Growth Fund has approved 11 projects in total, with cumulative approved funding rising to about 84 trillion won so far. Of that, cumulative approvals under the Advanced Strategic Industries Fund total 39 trillion won.

SUPPORT FOR NEXT-GENERATION AI INFRASTRUCTURE THROUGH INVESTMENT IN NATIONAL AI COMPUTING CENTRE AND UPSTAGE

The national AI computing centre project is a plan in which the public and private sectors jointly establish a special purpose company (SPC) to build and operate an AI data centre. The site is in the Solarsido data centre park area in Haenam county, South Jeolla province. A public-private AI data centre will be built on a site of about 15,000 pyeong, and 15,000 advanced AI chips such as graphics processing units (GPUs) and neural processing units (NPUs) will be introduced.

The overall project size is about 2.5 trillion won. With the approval of contributions from the Public Growth Fund (Advanced Strategic Industries Fund) and others, funding for 400 billion won in SPC equity capital has been linked and confirmed. The funding consists of 284 billion won from private investors, 80 billion won in fiscal funds (contributed via the Korea Development Bank), 18 billion won from the Advanced Strategic Industries Fund and 18 billion won from the IBK Public Growth Infrastructure Fund. The SPC will also pursue loans of up to more than 2 trillion won for the main project later.

The commission explained that the investment is meaningful in building core infrastructure for the "AI expressway" being pursued by the government. Over the mid to long term, it expects the project to lower dependence on foreign-made GPUs and to serve as a key platform supporting the securing of sovereignty over national AI infrastructure. The government plans to support overseas expansion and joint marketing of AI services developed at the national AI computing centre together with private companies participating in the SPC.

The committee also approved a direct investment agenda item for Upstage's project to develop a next-generation AI model to secure sovereign AI. Upstage, which develops AI solutions for companies and government and large language models (LLMs), was valued at about 1.3 trillion won before the capital increase. The tentative size of the capital increase is 560 billion won, with funding consisting of 100 billion won from the Advanced Strategic Industries Fund, 30 billion won from the Korea Development Bank and 430 billion won from private investors including SK Networks, Sajae Partners, Woori Venture Partners and Mirae Asset.

Upstage is also expanding its business by releasing its LLM model, "Solar Open", in open-source form for general users. It is also participating in the government-led "independent AI foundation model" project, and the investment is expected to lay the groundwork for completing sovereign AI.

FUNDING FOR ADVANCED INDUSTRY IN SAEMANGEUM, SONGDO AND ULSAN

Support for building a production base for spherical graphite in the Saemangeum advanced belt was also added to the list of eligible projects. It is a project in which Futuregraph, a subsidiary established by POSCO Future M, will build a large-scale spherical graphite production facility at the Saemangeum National Industrial Complex. Spherical graphite is a key raw material for anode materials used in lithium-ion batteries.

The overall project size is about 400 billion won. The Public Growth Fund will provide a total of 250 billion won in low-interest loans, including 200 billion won from the Advanced Strategic Industries Fund and 50 billion won from the Korea Development Bank. Through the plant construction, Futuregraph will build a spherical graphite production base with annual capacity of 37,000 tonnes at the Saemangeum National Industrial Complex. This will establish a value chain base capable of producing about 33,000 tonnes of natural graphite anode material.

The commission explained that spherical graphite manufacturing has been concentrated in certain countries, making it a representative weak link in the battery supply chain in terms of supply stability and price competitiveness. The produced spherical graphite will be supplied to a plant in Sejong and processed into final anode material. It is expected to raise self-reliance for key materials with high dependence on overseas sources, while contributing to stronger competitiveness in the domestic secondary battery industry and revitalising regional economies.

In the bio sector, a long-term low-interest loan of 85 billion won was approved for STGenBio to expand its production facilities for biosimilar drug substance (DS) and drug product (DP). STGenBio is a mid-sized company that carries out process development and contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) of antibody- and protein-based biopharmaceuticals in the Songdo advanced industrial cluster in Incheon, and it has the country's fifth-largest contract manufacturing facility.

The project is worth about 110 billion won, with about 25 billion won in self-funding, 65 billion won from the Advanced Strategic Industries Fund and 20 billion won from the Korea Development Bank. STGenBio will expand production capacity spanning drug substance to drug product to respond to rising global demand for biosimilars. Once the facility expansion is completed, STGenBio's maximum DS capacity is expected to rise 44 percent and its maximum DP capacity 170 percent.

Funding support for Foosung, a semiconductor materials company based in Ulsan, was also approved. Foosung produces domestically made high-purity hydrogen fluoride gas used in semiconductor etching and cleaning processes. The overall project size is about 21 billion won, to be carried out with 16.5 billion won from the Advanced Strategic Industries Fund and 4.5 billion won in self-funding. The commission viewed Foosung as an important partner supplier of hydrogen fluoride gas to major semiconductor manufacturers, and it expected the support to contribute to securing a stable domestic production base for high-purity hydrogen fluoride gas in response to rising semiconductor output.

The commission said it will continue to select projects with large industrial ripple effects and policy significance through the Public Growth Fund, announce them as megaprojects and provide ongoing support for diverse funding needs across the advanced industry ecosystem.