South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT said on Wednesday it visited Venturium, a youth AI startup incubation space run by the Korea Telecommunications Operators Association (KTOA), and held a meeting with young entrepreneurs.

Six youth AI startups attended the meeting along with venture capital firms and accelerators. The startups suggested the need for support in securing infrastructure such as GPUs for early-stage companies, mentoring from experienced entrepreneurs and help with investment and growth through competitions.

The ministry and KTOA have been supporting early-stage AI startups since last year through a competition to find investment targets among risk-taking and challenge-driven AI startups. The support includes investment links, mentoring, office space and participation in overseas investor relations presentations.

A total of 268 companies applied to take part in this year's competition, posting competition of 33.5 to 1.

Based on the program, the ministry is pushing to hold a competition for youth AI startups in the first half of 2027. It also plans to reflect opinions raised at the meeting in future AI startup support policies and in running the competition.

Ryu Je-myung (류제명), the ministry's second vice minister, said, "We will prepare various support measures so that young entrepreneurs with innovative technology and a challenging spirit can focus on technology development and leap into the global market."