South Korea has chosen three consortia — led by SK Telecom, KT Corp. and Kakao Corp. — to build a generative AI service that anyone in the country can use at no charge and without usage limits. The science ministry named the winners on Aug. 28 under a state program it calls AI for all.
Domestically built models meeting the ministry's benchmarks for self-developed foundation models must account for at least 50 percent of each system, with a further 30 percent or more supplied by other companies based in the country. The requirement is meant to build up South Korea's own AI industry and pull consumers away from services developed in the U.S. and China.
Two in three Koreans have tried AI, and 44.5 percent use generative AI regularly — but most of that use runs on services from abroad. In April 2026, ChatGPT led in Korea with 23.45 million users, ahead of Gemini on 8.45 million and Claude on 2.41 million.
Rather than standing alone as chatbots, the services are built to plug into the state's own systems: the program pairs a chatbot with an agent for public services that tracks down benefits and lodges applications on a user's behalf. Koreans will be able to arrange doctor visits, hunt for apartments and get advice on taxes.
The government will hand out up to 512 Nvidia B200 chips across the three consortia and contribute toward the cost of running them; the selected companies must match that support with funding of their own.
The ministry said it would sign an agreement with each consortium in September, when beta testing is also due to begin. Each service is to get its formal rollout before the year is out, and the program runs through 2030.
The rollout falls within a far larger commitment: for 2026, the administration of President Lee Jae Myung has earmarked roughly 10 trillion won, or $7.2 billion, for AI spending, three times the amount allocated the previous year. The ministry has not made public what AI for all will cost in total, and the government has set no take-up target for the service.