Months after the attempted imposition of martial law by his ousted predecessor, Yoon Suk-yeol, Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party emerged as the winner of the 21st presidential election, securing more than 49 per cent of the vote, with a voter turnout of over 79 per cent, which is the highest since 1997. Lee, a former factory worker and human rights lawyer before entering politics, has emphasised rebuilding the country if elected. A key pledge in this effort is to steer South Korea into a major transformation towards the era of artificial intelligence. Lee has vowed to invest more than 100 trillion won (approximately US$73.5 billion), along with providing support for emerging technologies and Korean media content.
Big Turn into AI
AI was a key theme in Lee’s inauguration speech on Wednesday, during which he pledged significant investment in artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and emerging technologies. Even during the presidential race, Lee vowed to position South Korea as one of the top three AI leaders on the global stage.
Among his policy pledges is the establishment of an “AI Highway”, an AI-powered data centre equipped with cutting-edge graphics processing units. Another promise is to foster the emergence and growth of AI-driven start-ups in South Korea, as well as to introduce a nationally representative large language model, dubbed “K-Mistral”, inspired by France’s sovereign AI start-up, Mistral AI.
Establishing governance for AI is another of Lee’s pledges. He vowed to appoint a Chief AI Officer (CAIO) within the presidential office to develop and implement unified AI-related policies throughout his administration.
While Lee’s proposed 100 trillion won investment is expected to be raised through a nationwide fund, some experts have expressed concerns over the feasibility of generating such funding and the sustainability of the industrial growth.

Push for Cutting-Edge Technologies and Rural Start-Ups
Several of Lee’s pledges focus on promoting cutting-edge technologies. For instance, the “Future Cutting-Edge Manufacturing K-Quantum Jump” project aims to foster a range of industrial sectors, including semiconductors, mobility, rechargeable batteries, and quantum computing, and to support the emergence of globally competitive companies.
Some policies are geared towards achieving balanced national development through tech-focused support. Lee has pledged to establish specialised complexes for advanced technology development in regions outside Seoul, expanding local expertise-based research and development infrastructure, such as universities, research institutes, and industrial clusters, led by regional governments. TIPS, a tech incubator programme for Korean start-ups driven by private sector investment, is also expected to expand to include start-ups headquartered outside the capital.
Promoting Korean Cultural Content
The new administration appears keen to sustain the global popularity of South Korea’s pop culture, with the aim of expanding the cultural content market to 300 trillion won by 2030 and increasing exports to 50 trillion won. According to Lee’s policy pledge brochure, a new public fund-based investment company will be established to invest in content production and support the re-production of domestic content for export, including features such as multilingual voiceovers and captions.