South Korea has launched an aggressive push to become a global AI powerhouse, appointing its first senior presidential secretary for artificial intelligence and announcing the construction of the nation’s largest AI data center.

Ha Jung-woo, head of Naver’s AI Innovation Center and a vocal advocate for developing “sovereign AI”, was named senior AI secretary by the presidential office on June 21. A dedicated AI policy unit will be created to support the role, signaling the administration’s full-scale mobilization toward AI development.

On the same day, SK Group revealed plans to build a massive AI data center in Ulsan’s Mipo National Industrial Complex in partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS). The project will involve an investment of several trillion won, boosting Korea’s digital infrastructure and AI processing capacity.

President Lee Jae-myung has prioritized AI as a national agenda, pledging 100 trillion won (approximately $735 billion) toward AI development during his campaign. His platform includes a proposal for a “sovereign AI” tailored to Korean language, culture, and history.

Ha is expected to champion this initiative, promoting a model where the government supplies infrastructure — such as GPUs — and private firms build AI systems that are later released as open-source tools.