August 14, 2025 /SemiMedia/ — South Korea’s leading telecom operators, SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus, have agreed to establish an investment fund exceeding 300 billion won ($219 million) to accelerate development in artificial intelligence (AI) core technologies and AI semiconductors. The move aligns with the government’s ambition to position the country among the world’s top three AI powers.

The initiative will be executed through the Korea IT Fund (KIF), a private fund jointly created by the three companies in 2002. This year, KIF will receive an additional 150 billion won to create sub-funds expected to channel at least 240 billion won into AI algorithms, computing infrastructure and semiconductor innovation.

A dedicated AI semiconductor fund worth 40 billion won will focus on local chip design, manufacturing and application ecosystems, while another 20 billion won will be allocated to the commercialization of ICT technologies. As of end-2024, KIF’s 91 sub-funds had invested about 4.7 trillion won in 1,669 promising startups.

Government officials said the plan would strengthen public-private investment cooperation and support tax incentives and regulatory reforms for AI data centers and semiconductor upgrades, boosting South Korea’s competitiveness in AI and chip technologies on the global stage.