The government will officially cultivate advanced industries through the National Growth Fund… Confirmed to provide 8.4 trillion won in support.

The government is accelerating the pace of ensuring technological competitiveness and strengthening industrial foundations by expanding funding support for strategic industries such as artificial intelligence, semiconductors, secondary batteries, and biotechnology through the National Growth Fund. Its purpose is to supplement the large-scale funding that is difficult to shoulder through private investment alone by using public finance, thereby cultivating future growth momentum.

On the 3rd, the Financial Services Commission said that at the National Growth Fund Fund Operation Review Committee held on July 30, it approved a direct investment totaling 560 billion won for projects such as Upstage’s development of a next-generation artificial intelligence model. Of this amount, 100 billion won comes from the Advanced Strategic Industry Fund. Upstage is a startup that develops artificial intelligence solutions and large language models for enterprises and governments, and is a unicorn valued at more than 1 trillion won. In particular, the company is the only startup and small-to-medium-sized enterprise to pass the first round of evaluation in the government-led autonomous artificial intelligence foundation model project; therefore, this investment is viewed as a case with major symbolic significance within South Korea’s artificial intelligence ecosystem.

The government is also allocating funds to expand artificial intelligence infrastructure. In the Sorasido Data Center Complex in Sora-si-do, Haenam County, Jeollanam-do, approval has been granted for an equity investment to build a national artificial intelligence computing center. The plan is to set up a special purpose company through a public-private partnership to construct a cutting-edge artificial intelligence data center, and thereby advance the introduction of 15,000 core semiconductors such as graphics processing units and neural network processing units. This investment approval determines the capital amount of the special purpose company at 400 billion won, and in the future it will further pursue additional loans of up to 2 trillion won. This initiative aims to reliably secure core computing resources that are central to performance competitiveness in the domestic artificial intelligence industry.

Support for the manufacturing and biotechnology sectors is also proceeding in parallel. Posco Future M’s subsidiary, Future Graph, will receive total low-interest loans of 250 billion won, including 200 billion won provided by the Advanced Strategic Industry Fund. The company plans to build a spherical graphite production base with an annual capacity of 37,000 tons at the New Mankyeong National Industrial Complex, and to establish a production system capable of producing about 33,000 tons of natural graphite anode materials. Battery anode materials are core materials for electric vehicles and energy storage systems, so they are directly tied to supply-chain self-reliance. STgen Bio will receive 85 billion won in long-term low-interest loans to expand production facilities for active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished drug production required for biosimilar manufacturing. For Foosung, a fluorine hydrogen gas producer for semiconductor process use located in Ulsan, a simplified process for regional small and mid-sized enterprises was applied, and a low-interest loan of 16.5 billion won from the Advanced Strategic Industry Fund was approved. Fluorine hydrogen gas is a core material used in semiconductor manufacturing, so its significance is not only in supporting regional companies, but also in stabilizing the supply chain.

As of April, the National Growth Fund has cumulatively approved 11 projects with a total value of 8.4 trillion won. The Financial Services Commission said it will select projects with substantial industry ripple effects and policy significance, regularly publish them in the form of large-scale projects, and be constantly prepared to respond to various funding needs. This trend is highly likely to continue in the future as well, in a way that balances technological sovereignty, supply-chain stability, and the nurturing of regional industries. Especially in cutting-edge industries where the initial investment burden is enormous, policy-based finance is expected to continue playing a guiding role in attracting private investment.