Korea, UAE forge alliance to build AI architecture

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy headquarters at Government Complex Sejong / Yonhap

Officials from Korea and the United Arab Emirates convened for a landmark investment forum Wednesday, signaling a deepening marriage between Korean technical hardware and Emirati sovereign wealth.

The "Korea-UAE Strategic Alliance for AI & Semiconductor" forum, which took place at the Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas, follows a state visit last November that established a high-level working group to bridge the two nations’ tech ecosystems. The goal is a seamless "artificial intelligence (AI) value chain" — one that links Korea’s world-class semiconductor manufacturing and energy-efficient AI models with the UAE's massive investment capacity and strategic location as a global hub.

The Emirati delegation, led by Mohamed Abdul Rahman AlHawi, the undersecretary of the Ministry of Investment, also included heavyweights from Abu Dhabi’s national AI firm Core42, the investment vehicle MGX and sovereign wealth giants Mubadala and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. Their presence underscored a $30 billion investment commitment made by the UAW to Korea in 2023, which is now being funneled into the high-energy demands of the digital age.

A central pillar of the discussions was the "Stargate AI Data Center Campus" project in the UAE, where Korean firms are expected to play a critical role in providing low-power, high-efficiency AI infrastructure. As AI models grow increasingly power-hungry, Korea’s ability to build sophisticated neural processing units and efficient data centers has become a prized asset for the UAE’s regional ambitions.

"Competition in the AI era is won when infrastructure meets the ability to apply it on the industrial floor," said Kim Seong-yeol, director of the Industrial Growth Division at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources.

For the UAE, the partnership is a natural evolution of a relationship that began with the Barakah nuclear power plant, a project built by Korean engineers that now provides the carbon-free energy essential for massive data centers.

This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.