South Korea's AI Research Faces Electricity Shortage

South Korea is accelerating its artificial intelligence (AI) research projects, but the corresponding pressure on power supply is continuously increasing. According to South Korean media reports, due to tight power supply, some universities have even had to temporarily shut down servers in other laboratories to meet the electricity demands of AI-related projects.

The JoongAng Ilbo reported on the 16th that as competition in the AI field intensifies, South Korean universities are increasingly constrained by power supply shortages. At a university in the capital Seoul, a professor who wished to remain anonymous told reporters: "AI research consumes vast amounts of electricity, and power supply-related issues are frequently occurring."

At the end of last month, US company NVIDIA announced it would supply South Korea with a total of 260,000 GPUs to help build AI infrastructure. However, according to the JoongAng Ilbo, to operate all these GPUs, including the energy consumption of cooling systems, approximately 600 megawatts of electricity would be required. The professor said: "Due to power supply limitations, we might not be able to use these chips."

Currently, South Korea is focusing on developing renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power. In September, during a press conference marking his first 100 days in office, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung stated: "We urgently need a massive amount of electricity to support data center operations, and renewable energy is the only system that can quickly meet this demand."

An investigation by Park Jeong, a lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, revealed that among the 54 power transmission projects listed in South Korea's "11th Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand," 30 have been delayed or are expected to be delayed. For example, a transmission line connecting multiple power plants on the East Coast with the capital region, originally scheduled for completion in 2019, has been postponed until at least the end of 2026.