South Korea Launches AIDC Alliance to Build 18.4 GW of AI Data Center Infrastructure

Odaily Planet Daily report: On July 29, South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT, along with relevant government agencies and industry stakeholders, established the AIDC Alliance with the goal of cultivating Korea’s AI data center ecosystem as a national strategic industry. The plan includes building AIDC infrastructure with a capacity of 18.4 GW, cross-sector financial support, and forming a global bundled export industrialization task force. Morgan Stanley recently defined AI infrastructure as a system comprising seven value chain segments: semiconductor processes, NPUs, CXL, memory, server integration, networking, internal power and liquid cooling, and external power and grid infrastructure. The Korean proposal recommends placing government-funded research institutions at the center of full-stack AIDC technology development and integrated demonstration projects, leveraging organizations such as KIST, ETRI, KISTI, KIMM, KERI, and KIER to cover semiconductor, AI chip, supercomputing, liquid cooling, power grid, and distributed power generation technologies. The proposal also recommends designating the “K-AIDC Full-Stack Integrated Demonstration Project” as the first national strategic research initiative following the cancellation of PBS, aiming to develop within three years a liquid-cooled, NPU-based, grid-connected modular AIDC reference system featuring more than 50% domestically produced NPUs, and to establish a nationally certified demonstration center.