South Korea invests $3.49B in homegrown AI model to rival China's best

south korea has announced plans to invest $3.49 billion in developing a domestic frontier ai model. the funding is part of the proposed 2027 budget and aims to support the creation of a homegrown ai model that can compete with china's leading models. the government will launch an open competition for funding, which startups can enter, and will not automatically provide additional funding to the two current finalists, lg ai research and sk telecom. this move is part of a larger effort to boost the country's ai capabilities and reduce its reliance on foreign ai services. south korean consumers currently spend more on chatgpt and similar subscriptions than on netflix.