Daewoo to build 500MW AI data center cluster in South Jeolla

A 500 megawatt AI data center cluster is not just another server farm; it’s effectively an AI factory aimed at the next wave of large models and inference workloads. By concentrating that much power capacity in South Jeolla with telco KT and local governments at the table, Korea is signalling that it wants to be more than just a memory supplier in the AI boom—it wants to host and operate large-scale AI compute in its own backyard.([4th.kr](https://www.4th.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=2105226))

For the AGI race, compute is destiny. Announcements like this underscore how quickly second‑tier hubs are racing to secure their own energy and land footprints for AI campuses, rather than relying solely on hyperscalers in the U.S. or Singapore. If Daewoo and KT can actually deliver 500 MW of AI-ready capacity, that translates into tens of thousands of accelerators and a domestic training and inference footprint big enough to support multiple frontier‑class national or corporate models. It also adds competitive pressure on Japan, Taiwan and Southeast Asia, where grid constraints are already emerging. The open question is how quickly renewable capacity and cooling infrastructure can be built to keep such clusters politically and economically sustainable.