The AIDC Alliance, a public-private cooperation body aimed at strengthening competitiveness in the AI data centre (DC) industry, has officially launched. It plans to bring together domestic technology and equipment, as well as power and cooling solutions, to develop AI data centres into a new export industry.

Jeong Jae-heon (정재헌), CEO of SK Telecom and co-chair of the AIDC Alliance, said in opening remarks at the launch ceremony on July 29 that it was very meaningful that the AIDC Alliance, one pillar of the three AI mega projects 추진 by the government, had been launched.

He also forecast that building large-scale AI data centres would serve as an opportunity to drive shared growth across related domestic industries. He conveyed that the industry should be actively fostered because it is a comprehensive culmination of advanced technologies, including power and cooling, as well as servers, storage and cloud software.

He said building hyperscale AI data centres would lead to advancement of data centre solutions and construction technology and improve the competitiveness of domestic technology and equipment companies. He said it would provide new opportunities for exports and industrialisation for the domestic AI data centre ecosystem.

He also said AI competition was spreading beyond individual companies into competition between countries. He said that, as the saying goes, "If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together," South Korea's entire industry needs to join forces for the country to go further in global AI competition.

He also said, as a co-chair company, he intends to take an active role in vitalising the alliance.

Jeong said the launch of the AI data centre alliance was the start of solidarity for South Korea to make a bigger leap further. He stressed that the results produced by the alliance would become the irreplaceable foundation of South Korea's AI competitiveness.

The AI data centre alliance is made up of three subcommittees covering demand, supply and foundations, as well as an export-industrialisation task force. The Information and Communications Technology Planning and Evaluation Institute will serve as the secretary and support its operation.

The steering group includes 12 companies, including SKT, Naver Cloud, Samsung SDS, NHN Cloud, LS Electric, LG Uplus, LG Electronics, GS, Kakao, KT, KTNF and FuriosaAI.

Attendees at the event included Bae Kyung-hoon, deputy prime minister and minister of science and ICT, Song Ki-heon, a Democratic Party lawmaker who chairs the National Assembly's Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, Han Jun-ho, the Democratic Party's committee floor spokesman, Choi Hyung-doo, the People Power Party's committee floor spokesman, and Democratic Party lawmaker Hwang Jung-a, along with officials from the government, the National Assembly and industry.