South Korea and US Forge 'Global AI Compute Grid'

In a historic move to counter the growing scarcity of AI hardware, South Korea has officially partnered with the United States to establish a 'Global AI Compute Grid'. The initiative involves the acquisition of 10,000 next-generation Nvidia Blackwell GPUs to creating a shared, cloud-based supercomputing network accessible to researchers and startups in both nations.

The Deal

* Hardware: 10,000+ Nvidia Blackwell (B200) GPUs.
* Goal: To democratize access to high-performance computing (HPC) for AI development.
* Strategy: Bypassing supply chain bottlenecks by pooling national resources.

Background

As AI models grow exponentially in size, the 'compute divide' has widened. Smaller nations and companies are struggling to secure the chips needed to train frontier models. This partnership represents a new geopolitical strategy: 'Compute Diplomacy', where nations align their tech infrastructure to compete with rival superpowers.

Why it matters

* Tech Sovereignty: Reduces reliance on private tech giants for critical infrastructure.
* Innovation: Lowers the barrier to entry for developing local LLMs (Large Language Models).