※ URL(Korean): https://www.kisdi.re.kr/bbs/view.do?bbsSn=114755&key=m2101113055776&pageIndex=1&sc=&sw=

KISDI Publishes Report on “Global AI Competition Strategy and Countermeasures” 
- AI technological sovereignty: A breakthrough must be sought through a “full-stack” perspective.
.................................................................................................................
The global AI competition is shifting into a “full-stack structure” encompassing semiconductors, models, platforms, and services.

The U.S., the EU, and China are each strengthening their domestic ecosystems, while Korea remains highly dependent on infrastructure.

Proposes five key policy directions including GPU–NPU hybrid infrastructure and domain‐specialized models.

KISDI Premium Report Special Edition No. 1 Proposes Policy Solutions for a Korean-Style Full-Stack Strategy

The Korea Information Society Development Institute (KISDI, President Sangkyu Rhee) recently published the first issue of its “KISDI Premium Report: Special Edition for Advancing the AI & Digital National Agenda,” titled “Global AI Competition Strategy and Countermeasures: A Full-Stack Perspective.”

The report analyzes how structural technological dependency across the entire stack has become entrenched around U.S. Big Tech, while global AI competition is shifting toward a “full-stack” framework that integrates semiconductors, models, platforms, and services.

According to the report, the United States is consolidating its AI technological dominance by leveraging a mature full-stack ecosystem centered on NVIDIA and Big Tech, while the European Union is proactively establishing AI regulations to reinforce internal regulatory control over U.S. Big Tech and pursuing gradual independence across models, infrastructure, and chips.

China, meanwhile, has been carving out a distinct path since the emergence of DeepSeek—progressing from lightweight general models to on-device deployment and rapid industrial application. By fostering early collaboration between chip vendors and model developers, China has realized a full-stack structure that enables efficient LLM operations without dependence on high-performance GPUs, aiming to secure leadership in next-generation edge and on-device AI ecosystems distinct from NVIDIA’s GPU-centric global market.

In contrast, Korea remains heavily dependent on U.S.-based infrastructure (AI chips, cloud, frameworks), and development and deployment of domestic general models remain limited. While the government is pursuing policies to expand infrastructure such as securing GPUs and developing independent foundation models, the report diagnoses a relative lack of a full-stack strategy that spans infrastructure-model-application phases.

Research Fellows Seongok Kim and Gyeongseon Lee emphasized that “while strengthening competitiveness in the general AI ecosystem through GPU-based data center construction and the development of proprietary foundation models that test Korea’s independent development capabilities, it is equally crucial to build domain-specialized and edge-centric ecosystems in parallel to swiftly respond to future AI inflection points and reinforce technological leadership across industries.”

Accordingly, under the realistic goal of “minimal dependency, maximum competitiveness,” the report proposes five policy directions leveraging Korea’s strengths to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers: The five proposed policy directions are: building hybrid infrastructure designed with GPU-based training and NPU-based inference; creating an ecosystem in which general LLMs and industry-specific domain models interact and circulate; establishing corporate consortia across technology stacks for model optimization and efficiency; fostering the AIaaS (AI as a Service) market to accelerate the diffusion of AI services; and securing global leadership through a Korean-style full-stack package strategy.

KISDI stated its intention to continue strategic research and policy support so that Korea can secure “full-stack sovereignty” amid global AI hegemony competition and build a converged ecosystem where technology, industry and policy work organically together.