Seoul invests $7B to boost AI amid global competition; Qatar launches unified platform offering GPU-as-a-service for national digital transformation.
South Korea plans to triple its spending on Artificial Intelligence (AI) next year, while Qatar has unveiled a new national AI platform, signaling growing global efforts to harness AI for economic and technological leadership.
In Seoul, President Lee Jae Myung outlined a $7 billion AI budget for 2026, three times the previous administration’s allocation. The investment is part of a broader $511 billion fiscal plan now awaiting parliamentary approval. “In the AI era, being late by a single day means falling behind by an entire generation,” Lee told lawmakers, framing AI as essential for South Korea’s competitiveness in a rapidly evolving global economy.
South Korea, a longstanding leader in semiconductor manufacturing, has lagged in AI model development. The government aims to bridge this gap through public-private partnerships, including a major agreement with Nvidia to import 260,000 advanced GPUs. Half of these chips will support a government-run national data center, with the remainder allocated to Samsung, SK, Hyundai, and Naver. The deal positions South Korea among a select group of countries granted access to Nvidia’s latest BlackWell GPUs, restricted elsewhere to safeguard U.S. technological advantages.
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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang welcomed the move, noting South Korea’s manufacturing and software expertise could help the country join the U.S. and China as a top-tier AI power.
Meanwhile, in Doha, Qatar’s IT solutions provider MEEZA launched MAI, a unified AI platform designed to support the nation’s digital transformation. MAI combines GPU-as-a-service for AI computing with MEEZA’s Next Generation Managed Services (MSNG), enabling users to analyze and interact with data in real time. The platform integrates with existing enterprise systems to enhance operational efficiency, compliance, and predictive analytics.
“MSNG marks a new era in managed services. It’s about understanding and conversing with your IT environment in real time,” said MEEZA CEO Mohammed Ali Al-Ghaithani. MAI’s GPU service, hosted entirely in Qatar, aligns with the government’s goal of AI and data sovereignty, and will support developers, researchers, and enterprises nationwide.
The initiative follows MEEZA securing a QAR 800 million ($220 million) credit facility to build a 44 MW data center, reinforcing the country’s push toward sovereign AI infrastructure.
