South Korea to Give All Citizens Free National AI

South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT has selected SK Telecom, Kakao, and KT consortia as operators for the 'AI for All' program, which will provide all 51-52 million citizens with free, unlimited access to national AI models; a beta launch is scheduled for September, with full rollout by the end of 2026.

Compiled by Sergey KostenchukPublished 2026-08-31Updated 2026-09-18

2026-08-31 Business OpenAI

🚀 South Korea to Give All Citizens Free National AI

On August 28, the Ministry of Science and ICT selected SK Telecom, Kakao, and KT consortia as operators for the 'AI for All' program — a free national AI service with no limits for 51-52 million people. The government will provide them with 512 Nvidia B200 GPUs and pay for the service from the budget starting in 2027; full launch is scheduled by the end of 2026.

🌍 For the first time, a G20 country is subsidizing both computing and service to shift the population to domestic models instead of ChatGPT — a direct distribution channel for Korean vendors.

👤 Beta launch — starting in September: unlimited bots will be integrated into KakaoTalk, calls, and SMS, and linked to doctor appointments, taxes, and housing search.

Source 1: https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/south-koreas-ai-for-all-push-gives-free-access-to-every-citizen-451f6b2c Source 2: https://en.sedaily.com/technology/2026/08/28/sk-telecom-kakao-and-kt-consortiums-win-koreas-free-ai

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