South Korea's Financial Services Commission discussed ways to foster sovereign AI and expand support for the AI ecosystem after meeting domestic AI semiconductor companies. It also plans to strengthen links between finance and industrial policy as it steps up investment in AI through the National Growth Fund.

The FSC said on Monday that FSC Chairman Lee Eok-won (이억원) visited domestic AI chip company FuriosaAI, toured its production and research facilities and held a meeting with AI chip and AI model companies.

Companies across the AI value chain, including FuriosaAI and Upstage, attended the meeting. The FSC plans to strengthen National Growth Fund support based on its understanding of the broader AI industry, including AI semiconductors, foundation models, data centres and application services.

In opening remarks, Lee said, "AI is a new national infrastructure and a foundation for growth." He said securing independent computing infrastructure, data and model capabilities is a task tied to AI sovereignty and industrial security.

He also said the first mega project under the National Growth Fund included the "K-Nvidia" project, and that the second mega project prepared an investment plan for a "sovereign AI project" spanning the AI value chain from semiconductors to data centres, foundation models and application services.

The FSC said the National Growth Fund recorded approvals for a total of 11 cases worth 84 trillion won from January to April this year, of which 4 cases worth 20 trillion won supported AI.

Lee said it executed direct investments worth several hundred billion won in domestic AI value chain companies including Rebellions and Upstage. He stressed that venture capital and patient capital are important because the AI industry makes it difficult to expect short-term results.

FuriosaAI introduced its next-generation inference-focused AI chip (NPU) called Renegade. The company said Renegade delivers higher performance per watt than global GPUs and could be an alternative to address power issues at AI data centres.

It also said it plans to invest funds secured through its ongoing capital increase round into mass production of its second-generation semiconductors and development of third-generation semiconductors.

Upstage announced plans to develop AI solutions for businesses and government and a large language model for general users called Solar Open. Upstage CTO Hwal-seok Lee (이활석) said, "We will contribute to securing technological sovereignty through our own foundation model."

The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy also said they plan to expand support to secure sovereign AI.

Do-gyu Lee (이도규), director-general for ICT Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "Developing domestically made AI semiconductors and independent AI foundation models is a core national task that must be 추진."

Woo-hyuk Choi (최우혁), director-general for Advanced Industrial Policy at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, said, "AI semiconductors are a strategic industry that will determine the competitiveness of our key industries." He said the ministry will expand support for research and development, demonstration and mass production so chips from domestic fabless companies can be introduced to manufacturing sites in a timely manner.

Lee said, "We will continue holding meetings by visiting the field in person and provide broad support, including for future industrial changes such as physical AI."