South Korea Commits $7.2 Billion to Free AI Access for All Citizens

South Korea's government has earmarked roughly 10 trillion won, or $7.2 billion, for AI-related spending in 2026. That's three times what it spent the year before, and the money is meant to fund the AI for Everyone program, which will give all 52 million citizens free, unlimited access to generative AI.

Scale of the Program

AI for Everyone is designed to make South Korea the first G20 country to offer artificial intelligence as a universal public service, alongside things like healthcare and education. Government funding will go to three consortia led by the country's two largest telecom operators and a company affiliated with Kakao, one of South Korea's most popular consumer platforms. The government selected these operators in late August, but the scale of the budget behind the program has only now been disclosed.

Beta testing begins in September 2026, with a broader rollout planned for later in the year. Reports indicate the program is meant to run at least through 2030. The companies chosen to run it must contribute their own funding to match the government's hardware support in the form of Nvidia B200 processors.

Free, But With Conditions

Participants will get unlimited access to an AI chatbot with no token limits, as well as a public-services agent designed to help them find benefits and file government applications. Residents will be able to book doctor's appointments, search for housing, or get tax advice through the system, since the services are meant to be integrated with government systems rather than operate as standalone chatbots.

Receiving government support is conditional on using domestic language models. At least half of the services must be built on models developed in South Korea, with another 30 percent coming from other domestic companies. The goal is to reduce reliance on American and Chinese AI providers.

Why Now

The program fits into the broader technological sovereignty strategy of President Lee Jae-myung's administration, which is betting on domestic AI development partly funded by profits from the semiconductor sector, including Samsung and SK Hynix. A government survey conducted this year found that about a quarter of Koreans use paid AI services, compared with just around 2 percent in the United States.

Despite widespread access to free AI tools, the number of paying users in Korea remains low, about 1.8 million as of April 2026, even though nearly 23 million residents, or 44.5 percent of the population, use generative AI regularly. Foreign models dominate that usage: ChatGPT had 23.45 million users in Korea, Gemini had 8.45 million, and Claude had 2.41 million.

What It Means for the Market

The government's $7.2 billion commitment is one of the largest public programs anywhere in the world aimed at giving citizens access to artificial intelligence. By comparison, in wealthier Western economies AI remains largely a commercial service paid for individually or by employers, while South Korea's model treats it as centrally funded public infrastructure.

For readers in Poland, the program illustrates how much public money other G20 countries are willing to commit to building technological independence in AI, in contrast to the debates within the European Union and Poland around AI gigafactories and regulation, where the scale of direct funding for citizens' access to artificial intelligence remains far more modest.

A final timeline for user registration has not yet been announced, nor has the full cost of the program once the selected consortia's private contributions are factored in. Further details are expected once beta testing begins in September.