On the 19th, Kakao's stock price is rising more than 9%. This is interpreted as an impact of the anticipation following the Lee Jae-myung government announcing a massive investment in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry.

Kakao logo./Courtesy of Kakao

At 9:32 a.m. on that day, Kakao is trading at 60,700 won, an increase of 5,500 won (9.96%) compared to the previous session. This marks the first time Kakao has crossed the 60,000 won mark since February 15 last year, over a year and three months ago.

The reason for Kakao's strength is interpreted as being due to the government's anticipated massive investment for the development of the AI industry. The Ministry of Science and ICT reported a work plan to the National Planning Commission detailing plans to invest more than 16 trillion won over the next five years to leap forward as an AI powerhouse.

Specifically, the policy is to invest 12.3 trillion won in creating a foundation for entering the top three AI powers in the world. Plans are being pushed to enhance research and development investments, including the construction of AI data centers, securing 50,000 graphics processing units (GPUs), building a direct AI data cluster, and developing artificial general intelligence (AGI).

Additionally, the strategy includes investing 600 billion won in promoting the global AI initiative strategy and 1 trillion won in building a basic AI society. Furthermore, a plan was proposed to allocate approximately 1.3 trillion won for cultivating national AI talent.