Haenam AI Center Breaks Ground, Aims for 15,000 GPUs

* Editor's Note: 'AI PRISM' (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an "AI-based personalized news recommendation and summary service" developed with support from the Korea Press Foundation. It selects and provides six customized news items by reader type.

[[LINK_0]]1. Haenam AI Computing Center Breaks Ground... Building Infrastructure With 15,000 GPUs[[/LINK_0]]

Key Summary: The Ministry of Science and ICT and KOAC held a groundbreaking ceremony for the National AI Computing Center in Solaseado, Haenam, South Jeolla Province, with a total project cost of 2.4 trillion won. A corporation jointly funded by the Samsung SDS consortium, the National Growth Fund, and the Ministry of Science and ICT in a public-private partnership will handle construction and operation, expanding to 15,000 GPUs by 2028 and 50,000 by 2030. Starting in 2027, before completion, part of the Samsung SDS data center's AI computing resources will be opened first, preemptively addressing the urgent GPU shortage facing industry, academia, and research. Once the AI infrastructure is in full operation, demand for new jobs in related research positions, data center operations, and domestic AI chip verification is expected to grow significantly.

[[LINK_1]]2. Dual-Income Earned Income Tax Credit Raised by 300,000 Won... Youth Rent Credit Rate Raised to 17%[[/LINK_1]]

Key Summary: Under the 2026 tax reform plan announced by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the youth rent tax credit rate rises to 17%, and the deduction limit expands from 10 million won to 12 million won per year. A 15% tax credit rate applies to youth IRP contributions regardless of income, and the tax exemption on interest income from the Soldiers' Tomorrow Savings account is extended three years through the end of 2029. As earned income tax credit requirements are eased, the total income ceiling for dual-income households rises from 44 million won to 52 million won, bringing more households into the eligible pool. Job seekers balancing part-time work now have an opportunity to increase their actual disposable income by carefully checking tax benefits.

[[LINK_2]]3. Professor Lee Woo-geun: "40-Year Long-Term Plans Are the Foundation of China's Technological Rise... Korea Needs Its Own Xinchuang"[[/LINK_2]]

Key Summary: Lee Woo-geun, a Sungkyunkwan University professor with 20 years of experience at Tsinghua University, analyzed that China's 863 and 973 programs have continued uninterrupted since the 1980s, laying the foundation for technological hegemony. He noted that while the Double First-Class policy propelled Tsinghua into the world's top 15, Seoul National University stood still, pointing to the structural problem in Korea where long-term strategies reset with each change of government. Just as China's Xinchuang policy guarantees early profits by having the government purchase a set amount of domestically produced chips, he suggested Korea also needs a policy to create stable demand to nurture its fabless ecosystem. For job seekers interested in system semiconductors and fabless fields, understanding the direction of Korea's policy changes and the differences between China's and Taiwan's ecosystems will help in career planning.

[[LINK_3]]4. U.S. Bars Chinese Robots... Korean Parts Suppliers Gain Momentum in North America[[/LINK_3]]

Key Summary: With the U.S. FCC completely banning imports of new humanoid and quadruped robot models, Korean auto parts suppliers already operating local factories stand to benefit. Halla Cast will begin supplying robot thermal management parts to a North American company in the second half of this year and double its production capacity, while SL will begin mass-producing leg modules for Boston Dynamics' "Spot" in the third quarter. Goldman Sachs forecast that Korea, leveraging its automotive industry expertise, will handle 30% of global humanoid production by 2030. Opportunities for mechanical and automotive engineering graduates to expand their careers into robot parts are widening.

Key Summary: Robotis has released the entire software of its humanoid robot "AI Sapiens" as open source, adopting a license that even permits commercial product development. The released materials include Sim2Real tools and reinforcement learning workflows, long considered key challenges in humanoid development, making it possible for university labs, startups, and general developers to build high-performance humanoids. It is regarded as the first case of breaking the industry practice of keeping control code confidential and transparently disclosing even internal operating principles. For job seekers preparing for robotics and AI fields, this provides practical open-source resources to build a portfolio.

[[LINK_5]]6. 'Korean IRA' Includes Six Items Such as Semiconductors and Batteries... Electric Vehicles Excluded[[/LINK_5]]

Key Summary: The Korean IRA taking effect next year has finalized six items — semiconductors, batteries, AI robot parts, solar power, wind power, and core materials — while SMRs and MMRs have been newly incorporated as national strategic technologies, qualifying for tax credits of up to 50% for R&D and 30% for investment, respectively. It also includes extending the 90% income tax reduction for young people employed at small and medium-sized enterprises in population-declining regions from five years to ten years. A provision was newly established to tax inherited assets at a value raised by at least 30% if share-price suppression to reduce inheritance and gift taxes is detected. The expanded scope of national strategic technology support could increase investment and hiring by companies in the semiconductor, energy, and robot parts sectors.