Korea is going all out with "All in AI"? Lee Jae-myung's first budget speech highlights the grand vision of "AI integrating all things"

In his first budget speech, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung placed artificial intelligence at the core of his government's economic vision, vowing to completely transform the country's core industries, public services, and defense industry through massive AI investments and policy support, striving to integrate all aspects of the country with AI comprehensively. Shortly before his latest speech, conglomerates such as Samsung and Hyundai collectively announced that they would partner with NVIDIA to invest heavily in building an "AI factory" to support large-scale AI training/inference workloads in South Korea, and would purchase large-scale NVIDIA AI GPU computing clusters. As a result, a series of AI-related news in South Korea has been seen by some stock market traders as the country's full-scale entry into the AI field, which is why the stock prices of the two major memory chip giants in South Korea - SK Hynix and Samsung, as well as other leaders in AI computing power, surged frequently on the South Korean stock market, driving the KOSPI composite stock price index to repeatedly hit new highs this year, rising more than 20% in October alone, the best single month since 2001. This speech marked Lee Jae-myung's first budget speech to the South Korean National Assembly since assuming office in June. Lee described the 2026 budget as the "first national-level budget in the AI era," following the failed imposition of martial law by his predecessor Yoon Suk-yeol which caused several months of political turmoil in South Korea, signaling a comprehensive shift in South Korean policy towards technological reforms. "In the AI era, even one day of delay means falling behind a whole generation," Lee told South Korean lawmakers on Tuesday. "Since we started late, we must go faster and do more to catch up with the leaders - only then will we have a chance." He emphasized that the South Korean government will increase AI investment to over 101 trillion South Korean won (approximately $70 billion) next year, roughly more than three times the current level, as an important part of the overall budget proposal of 728 trillion won, with the goal of revitalizing South Korea's economic growth, overcoming the decline in South Korea's population structure, and preparing fully for the wave of global trade and technological changes. Lee stated that AI will be the foundation of future competitiveness in key technology fields such as humanoid Siasun Robot&Automation, autonomous vehicles, semiconductors, and logistics. He vowed to nurture the "physical AI" capabilities mentioned multiple times by Hwang In-hon in the speech by combining South Korea's vast manufacturing base with real-time data, while promoting widespread adoption of AI technology in areas such as biotechnology, public health, education, and taxation. He also outlined long-term plans to enhance the country's computing power system and cultivate a larger talent pool in AI technology, emphasizing that the South Korean government will accelerate the procurement of high-performance GPU computing chips and provide advanced and more sophisticated AI education systems. In terms of national security, the South Korean government's latest plan will increase defense spending by 8.2% to 6.63 trillion won, with a focus on upgrading conventional weapons and introducing "AI+military" super-intelligent systems - this will bring defense spending to 2.4% of GDP. Lee stated that independent defense is unquestionably a matter of national pride. Although opposition party members remain cautious about his ambitious agenda, Lee urged both parties to cooperate actively, calling 2026 a historic turning point. The main opposition party, the People Power Party, boycotted the speech, citing recent arrest warrants issued for lawmakers, including former party whip Goo Kyung-ho, who served as finance minister under former President Yoon Suk-yeol. Samsung, SK, and Hyundai, the three major South Korean chaebols, are set to create an "AI factory" One of the most exciting news for Wall Street analysts recently is undoubtedly the announcement that Hwang In-hon gave a visibility of $500 billion in cumulative data center business revenue from 2025 to 2026 - that is, data center business revenue over the next five quarters from Blackwell and the next generation Rubin architecture AI GPU series products, driving NVIDIA's total market value to break through and stabilize at the super milestone of $5 trillion, making it the world's first company to reach a market value of $5 trillion. "The AI era has fully arrived," said the "AI pioneer" Hwang In-hon, and NVIDIA is transforming from "a chip design company" to "the strongest technological foundation of the AI era" - that is, a full-stack technology platform that includes all AI-related infrastructure and complete industry operating systems. NVIDIA defines this "AI technological foundation" as a full-stack technology platform from underlying silicon products to AI-grade rack computing power clusters to AI factories and the entire industry ecosystem. During NVIDIA CEO's official visit to South Korea on October 31, NVIDIA announced collaborations with Samsung Electronics, SK Group, and Hyundai Motor Group to advance the construction process of the AI super factory. According to various agreements reached, NVIDIA will supply over 260,000 high-performance AI GPUs to assist South Korea in launching a massive AI infrastructure project. NVIDIA will collaborate with Samsung to build a new generation AI factory, marking a new era of full integration of intelligent computing and chip manufacturing. Samsung's semiconductor AI factory will be equipped with over 50,000 NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs). Samsung stated that they are in "close discussion" about supplying NVIDIA with the next-generation high-bandwidth memory chip HBM4. The South Korean company, planning to launch the new chips next year, did not disclose the specific shipment date for the HBM4 chip. In a joint statement about the AI factory, NVIDIA pointed out: "From the first collaboration between the two parties using Samsung DRAM for NVIDIA's first graphics card NV1, to the launch of the industry's first commercial HBM chip, to the critical supply collaboration of HBM3E and HBM4, the two companies' solid alliance over the past 25 years has laid a foundation for today's AI transformation." NVIDIA stated that it is partnering with SK Group to jointly build an AI factory to promote semiconductor research and manufacturing, develop cloud computing infrastructure, support digital twins and AI intelligent body development. The AI factory developed by SK Group will be equipped with over 50,000 NVIDIA AI acceleration chips, and the initial phase of the project is expected to be completed by the end of 2027. The new factory will provide AI computing support for SK hynix, SK Telecom, and other group subsidiaries and external organizations through the NVIDIA AI GPU computing cluster-as-a-service model. The two parties will also collaborate on developing SK hynix HBM storage for NVIDIA GPUs and advanced next-generation storage solutions, focusing on semiconductor manufacturing and communication infrastructure. NVIDIA will collaborate with Hyundai Motor Group on the new generation Blackwell architecture AI super factory to advance innovation in autonomous driving vehicles, smart factories, and Siasun Robot&Automation technology. The two parties will deploy 50,000 NVIDIA Blackwell architecture AI GPUs to jointly develop AI capabilities for autonomous driving and mobility solutions, build next-generation smart factories, and promote breakthroughs in high-performance device-edge semiconductor technology. The core goal of both parties is to achieve integrated AI model training, validation, and deployment through GPU clusters.