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Busan Metropolitan City Selected for the “Shipbuilding and Maritime Edge AI Data Demonstration Pilot Project”

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Busan Metropolitan City, led by Mayor Chun Jae-soo, announced that its “Busan Shipbuilding and Maritime Edge AI Data Center Development Project” has been selected for the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s “2026 Industrial Complex Edge AIDC Demonstration Pilot Project.”

The project aims to accelerate the AI transformation (AX) of the manufacturing sector by providing shared AI computing infrastructure that would be difficult for individual companies in industrial complexes to build independently. Busan Metropolitan City submitted its proposal with the Myeongji-Noksan National Industrial Complex as the project site.

The project will be implemented over a 12-month period from July 2026 to June 2027, followed by a mandatory five-year operational period. The total project budget amounts to KRW 18.3 billion, including KRW 14.0 billion from the national government, KRW 2.1 billion from Busan Metropolitan City, and KRW 2.2 billion from private-sector partners.

The project will be led by the Busan Regional Headquarters of the Korea Industrial Complex Corporation, with participation from five organizations and companies: Alice Group Inc., Busan Technopark, EGAI Co., Ltd., Geon Solution Co., Ltd., and Formit Co., Ltd.

Through this initiative, Busan Metropolitan City plans to establish the nation’s first industrial-complex-based Edge AI Data Center built on both Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and domestically developed Neural Processing Units (NPUs) at the Myeongji-Noksan National Industrial Complex.

The Myeongji-Noksan National Industrial Complex, home to numerous shipbuilding equipment manufacturers as well as machinery and metalworking companies, has faced challenges in strengthening manufacturing competitiveness due to labor shortages in the shipbuilding industry and delays in the digital transformation of aging industrial complexes.

In particular, the shipbuilding industry and foundational manufacturing companies continue to experience an aging workforce and declining interest in manufacturing jobs, leading to increased dependence on foreign workers and a growing need to adopt advanced technologies such as AI and robotics.

The data center will be equipped with 32 GPU (H200) units and 168 domestically developed NPUs. It will operate under a role-separated architecture in which GPUs are dedicated to training and validation, while domestic NPUs handle inference and continuous services.

The share of domestically developed NPUs will be expanded to 84 percent, contributing to the growth of Korea’s AI semiconductor ecosystem. In addition, three Manufacturing AI Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions—including smart factory applications, Vision AI for industrial safety, and digital twin predictive maintenance—will be demonstrated and deployed in phases.

The center is also expected to provide AI computing resources at costs up to 50 percent lower than commercial cloud services, reducing both initial investment and operational expenses for tenant companies.

Busan Metropolitan City and the Busan Regional Headquarters of the Korea Industrial Complex Corporation will proceed with the design and construction of the facility, targeting a beta launch in December 2026. They will establish a self-sustaining operational model that will remain viable beyond the mandatory operating period and later expand it to major shipbuilding industrial belts, including the Southeast region, Daebul, and Gunsan.

Mayor Chun Jae-soo stated, “We will establish shared infrastructure that enables manufacturers in western Busan, which are facing challenges from the shipbuilding industry downturn and labor shortages, to experiment with and adopt AI technologies without financial burden.”

He added, “Through this project, Busan will present Korea’s first manufacturing AI demonstration model based on domestically developed AI semiconductors and lead the digital transformation of the shipbuilding and maritime industries.”