South Korea's Financial Services Commission and Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy will link the National Growth Fund with a manufacturing AI transformation project to identify and support leading companies in physical AI. The plan is to back large-scale investment and technological innovation centred on manufacturing-based industries such as AI factories, robots and future vehicles.

The Financial Services Commission and the industry ministry said on Tuesday they held a joint public-private meeting at the headquarters of Korea Development Bank on the "National Growth Fund-M.AX Frontier Project" and discussed ways to identify and support promising companies and mega-projects in physical AI.

The M.AX Frontier Project is an industry-finance cooperation project to nurture leading companies in manufacturing AI transformation areas such as robots, AI factories and future vehicles.

The industry ministry supports manufacturers' AI conversion and technological innovation through the M.AX Alliance, while the Financial Services Commission backs large-scale investment and scale-ups by promising companies through the National Growth Fund.

Participants from the financial sector included Korea Development Bank, Industrial Bank of Korea, NongHyup Financial Group, KB Kookmin Bank, Hana Bank, Woori Bank and Morgan Stanley.

Companies attending included LS Cable & System, CJ Logistics, Isu Petasys and Daesung Hi-Tech in AI factories; Wonik Robotics and Doosan Robotics in robots; and Hyundai Mobis, Magnachip Semiconductor and LX Semicon in future vehicles.

The government views global AI competition as expanding beyond generative AI into physical AI that moves and makes judgments in the real world.

The Financial Services Commission plans to work with the industry ministry's M.AX Alliance to jointly identify promising leading companies and mega-projects in key physical AI markets such as AI factories, robots, future vehicles and defence. It will supply about 16 trillion won in funding this year across six areas closely linked to physical AI: AI, robots, future vehicles, defence, semiconductors and secondary batteries.

The first M.AX investment project of the National Growth Fund was also introduced. LS Cable & System is pushing ahead with an expansion of its extra-high-voltage subsea cable production plant as the fund's first M.AX investment project.

FINANCIAL SERVICES COMMISSION "WILL PROVIDE LONG-TERM FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR PHYSICAL AI"

The meeting also included presentations of industrial visions by sector. Participating companies stressed that securing manufacturing competitiveness in the AI era requires not only research and development support but also large-scale facility investment, building demonstration infrastructure and long-term capital supply for global expansion.

Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Jeong-gwan Kim (김정관) said, "AI factories, AI robots and semiconductors are key to driving growth in the coming AI era, so bold investment is needed." He added, "I hope the National Growth Fund becomes a strong growth ladder."

Financial Services Commission Chairman Eok-won Lee (이억원) stressed, "As a powerful implementation tool that makes real the vision for South Korea to leap to the global No. 1 in physical AI, the National Growth Fund will become a priming water that spurs private investment."

He added, "With long-term and bold financial support for the physical AI sector, we will lay the foundation to leap into an ultra-gap industrial powerhouse."

The Financial Services Commission and the industry ministry plan to use the meeting as an opportunity to link industrial promotion policy and financial policy to support the entire process from technology development and demonstration to commercialisation and scale-up.