Overview

• Seoul proposed a 35.3 trillion-won national R&D budget for 2026, up 19.3%, with 2.3 trillion won for AI, 2.6 trillion for renewables and 8.5 trillion for strategic technologies, plus 1.3 trillion to recruit overseas experts and 4 trillion for state institutes.
• The government will create a National Growth Fund exceeding 100 trillion won with private partners to finance AI and other strategic sectors, with financing structures and approvals still to be finalized.
• The 30 mapped priority projects include humanoid robots, AI-enabled factories, autonomous vehicles targeted for full commercialization in 2027 and unmanned autonomous ships by 2030, as well as AI-based tax services starting in 2026.
• Five firms — Naver Cloud, Upstage, SK Telecom, NC AI and LG AI Research — were selected to receive support to build Korean-language AI foundation models.
• Officials set a long-term goal to raise potential growth to 3%, projecting 1.8% GDP growth in 2026, and plan task forces, data infrastructure and regulatory easing to speed implementation.