GWANGJU < invest Korea

[Gwangju=Newsis] Gwangju National AI Data Center. (Photo=Provided by Gwangju City/Newsis DB). photo@newsis.com *Resale and DB redistribution prohibited.

According to Newsis,

[Gwangju=Newsis] Reporter Ryu Hyung-geun = Preliminary work to construct the 'National Neural Processing Unit (NPU) Computing Center' (NPU Center) in Gwangju—a core facility for Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology that learns, processes, and commands information like a human brain—is set to begin in earnest.

Once the NPU Center is established, it will operate in tandem with the existing Graphic Processing Unit (GPU)-centered National AI Data Center, allowing Gwangju to seize hegemony in AI technology and leap forward as a hub city for realizing Korea as one of the top 3 AI powerhouses.

Gwangju City announced on the 25th that starting next month, it will push forward with a consulting service project for the 'Establishment of the National NPU Center' together with the Ministry of Science and ICT.

A budget of KRW 600 million has been secured for this service. The plan is to derive the scale of the National NPU Center, the total budget required for establishment, and utilization plans, which will be used as foundational data for establishing the center in Gwangju.

An NPU is a device that functions like a human brain, learning and processing information through numerous nerve cells.

It optimizes accumulated data from various sectors of society—such as medicine, law, automobiles, disasters, safety, and public security—and applies it to AI products currently under development, including autonomous vehicles, robot vacuums, intelligent cameras, industries, and logistics, enabling them to act like humans.

In a global trend where the competition for dominance in the AI industry is rapidly shifting from the 'training' stage of building large language models to the 'inference' stage of creating value by applying them to actual services, the construction of the NPU Center, along with the GPU Computing Center, is uated as the core of AI technology transition.

Furthermore, the Gwangju NPU Center possesses strengths in low power consumption and high efficiency compared to GPU computing centers.

The NPU Center consumes up to three times less power than GPUs, removes unnecessary circuits to focus on calculation functions for higher efficiency, and can be applied to smartphones and laptops where battery life is crucial.

NPU chips have also reached a stage where domestic production is possible, allowing for self-procurement without relying on imports.

While the GPU market is dominated by global companies like Nvidia, fabless companies that have settled in Gwangju, such as ASICLAND, AimFuture, FuriosaAI, and Rebellion, are accelerating the sophistication and commercialization of NPUs.

Among them, FuriosaAI is reportedly planning to produce tens of thousands of NPU chips; if supplied to the Gwangju NPU Center, AI research can be conducted using domestic technology.

Gwangju City plans to build an infrastructure of about 10,000 units in the initial phase of the NPU Center, with a ratio of 70-80 percent NPU and 20-30 percent GPU.

If the National NPU Center is built in Gwangju, it can provide computing resources at a low price to companies, universities, and research institutes developing AI technologies, leading to expectations of integration and job creation.

This has already been proven through the National AI Computing Center, which opened in Oryong-dong, Buk-gu, Gwangju, in October 2023.

Currently equipped with about 2,500 ultra-high-performance GPUs—including 796 A100s, 880 H100s, 384 T4s, and 128 IPUs—the National AI Computing Center conducted 484 AI model training and research projects at the time of opening, but this number increased to 1,186 last year.

It has achieved results including 2,207 cases of computing resource provision, 2,081 cases of AI training model development and improvement, 328 cases of commercialization, and 611 domestic and international paper publications.

Currently, 160 companies have nested in the Gwangju Startup Center and Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), and business agreements have been signed with 337 companies. It has achieved employment creation for 2,173 people, including the hiring of some 640 local talents.

Based on support from Gwangju City, the National AI Computing Center allows the use of one H100 GPU for one month at KRW 100,000, which is 3 percent of the market price of approximately KRW 3 million.

Son Du-young, Head of the AI Industry Office, stated, "If we compare the NPU Center to an airplane, the NPU is like an efficient long-range cruise engine, while the GPU is like an auxiliary engine responsible for complex take-offs, landings, and maneuvering," adding, "The global trend is the harmony of NPU and GPU."

He continued, "The NPU Center being installed in Gwangju is an important infrastructure for the national AI strategy and will serve as a key base supporting domestic companies to secure competitiveness in the global market." He expressed confidence, saying, "Since NPU chip localization is possible, if the National AI Data Center and the NPU Center are combined, companies and research personnel attempting AI technology transitions will flock to Gwangju."

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Source Text

Source: Newsis (January 25, 2026)

** This article was translated from Korean.