The Ministry of Science and ICT's project to establish a national AI computing center has been rejected again.
The Ministry of Science and ICT noted on the afternoon of the 13th that the reannouncement for the national AI computing center project had ended.
As a result of the reannouncement, there were no private consortiums that applied, and thus the project was rejected again.
Previously, the Ministry of Science and ICT had a first application period for about three months, but was rejected on the 30th of last month due to the absence of applying corporations.
The Ministry of Science and ICT has been promoting the national AI computing center project as a way to expand computing resources necessary for AI model and service development.
The government is aiming to construct an AI computing center with an exaflops (EF, capable of processing 100 quintillion floating-point operations per second) capability in a non-capital region by 2027, and is recruiting a special purpose corporation (SPC) to operate the national AI computing center in partnership with public equity (51%).
However, there are concerns about whether the participating private businesses can generate revenue, and it has been pointed out as a limitation that the government holds a higher level of equity.
Additionally, the buyback clause that requires the operator to return public equity when the government desires has been identified as a factor discouraging participation in the project.
The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to discuss future project directions with related ministries, including the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.