Gangwon Province Secures Nearly $98 Million for AI Data‑Center Initiative

The Gangwon special self‑governing province in South Korea was selected for the national AI industry growth program and will receive up to 98 billion won in funding through 2027. The project, jointly run by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea IT Industry Promotion Agency, allocates 59 billion won of state money and adds regional contributions to build small‑scale data centers that pool GPU resources from Kangwon National University’s Gangneung campus and Hanlim University.

Seven local AI firms will use the shared high‑performance computing infrastructure to develop and test services in three priority sectors: medical care (AI‑based health and education solutions), safety (AI‑driven coastal monitoring, drone inspections and disaster response) and manufacturing (green‑bio processes and defect‑detection systems). The initiative aims to accelerate AI conversion across the province’s industry, create a collaborative ecosystem among universities, companies and public agencies, and boost the competitiveness of regional AI technology.

The plan, backed by roughly 100 billion won in total (government and local funds), also includes pilots such as an AI‑powered demand‑movement analysis system for public buses in Jeongseon county, illustrating the project’s focus on everyday‑life applications.