A $35 billion “mega” data centre planned for South Korea is set to be the world’s first large-scale facility designed, built, and run by artificial intelligence, reports The Wall Street Journal. The 3-gigawatt (3GW) project is a partnership, dubbed “Project Concord,” between investor group Stock Farm Road (SFR) and Stanford-backed AI developer Voltai.
Under the plan, AI will manage the data centre’s entire life cycle, from its initial design and construction to the efficient management of resources such as power and water. Humans will be involved only as supervisors, with the AI acting as the primary decision-maker. The facility is scheduled for completion in 2028.
Stock Farm Road, and its component firm Fir Hills, is co-founded by Brian Koo, a member of the LG founding family, and Dr. Amin Badr-El-Din, who led the $10 billion Dolphin energy program in the UAE. Their vision, called “e2i²” (Energy to Intelligence), aims to solve AI’s “critical constraint” by integrating massive computing power with reliable energy infrastructure.
Voltai, the AI partner, is focused on creating “world models” and agents for AI to design complex physical systems like data centres “beyond human cognitive limits”.
Launchpad for a revolution
“This data centre is not merely an infrastructure project, but the launchpad for a new digital industrial revolution,” said Brian Koo, co-founder of SFR.
Dr. Amin Badr-El-Din described the project as “a strategic leap forward for Korea’s global technological leadership”.
The project, to be built in South Korea’s South Jeolla Province, is expected to create over 10,000 jobs. The 3GW facility’s capacity is exceptionally large, as it is rare for a single data centre site globally to exceed one gigawatt.
