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Seoul, Arm Ink Deal to Train 1,400 Chip Designers as Lee, Son Deepen AI Drive

The agreement marks a pivot from broad pledges to concrete programs to build talent for Korea's AI and semiconductor ambitions.

Overview

  • South Korea’s Industry Ministry and Arm signed an MOU to create an Arm-backed chip design program targeting about 1,400 specialists, with a working group to set up a dedicated school and the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology under consideration.
  • President Lee Jae Myung met SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son in Seoul and framed AI as basic public infrastructure accessible to all citizens, asking Son to help bridge cooperation with Japan.
  • Son urged planning for artificial superintelligence and identified energy, semiconductors, data and education as core resources, warning that Korea’s current power supply is insufficient for large AI data centers.
  • The presidential AI committee met Amazon executives as AWS reaffirmed plans to invest about $5 billion by 2031 to build new AI data centers in South Korea.
  • SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won said Korea must invest roughly 1,400 trillion won to develop about 20 gigawatts of AI data-center capacity over seven years to remain competitive.