SEOUL, South Korea, Nov 4, (AP): South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Tuesday called for tripling the government spending on projects for expanding artificial intelligence infrastructure and technology in a budget speech. Lee also called for lawmakers to approve a planned 8.2% increase in defense spending next year, which he said would help modernize the military’s weapons systems and reduce its reliance on the United States, as the allies’ military chiefs met in Seoul for annual security talks.

Most conservative opposition lawmakers boycotted Lee’s speech amid an ongoing rift over a criminal investigation into former President Yoon Suk Yeol's brief imposition of martial law in December. Lee’s speech came after South Korea last week hosted the leaders of major Pacific Rim nations for this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings, which his government used to showcase its ambitions for AI and advance an effort at a trade deal with the US.

In his speech at the National Assembly, Lee highlighted his APEC diplomacy and a bilateral meeting with US President Donald Trump, which he said eased uncertainties facing South Korea’s trade-dependent economy by securing lower tariffs on automobiles and computer chips, two of the country’s key exports. He said the country was still facing a critical moment for "national survival” amid rapid changes in the global trade order and a "huge, transformative wave of AI.”

Lee said the proposed budget of 728 trillion won ($506 billion), which would represent an all-time high for government spending, would be the country’s "first budget to open the AI era.” He called on the liberal-led legislature to approve 10.1 trillion won ($6.9 billion) in AI-related spending - more than triple this year’s level - to advance the country’s AI computing and manufacturing capabilities, with a particular focus on industries such as semiconductors, automobiles, shipbuilding and robotics.

"Just as President Park Chung-hee paved the highway for industrialization and President Kim Dae-jung built the highway for the information age, we must now construct the highway for the AI era to open a future of progress and growth,” Lee said, referring to major development drives under Park’s dictatorship in the 1960s and ’70s and Kim’s presidency from 1998 to 2003, which focused on expanding South Korea’s internet infrastructure.

Lee said South Korean companies would have little difficulty securing the chips for their AI projects, citing a deal for Nvidia, whose GPUs power much of the global AI industry, to supply 260,000 graphics processing units for AI infrastructure projects with major South Korean businesses and the government. The deal was announced following a meeting during APEC between Lee and Jensen Huang, the Silicon Valley company’s chief executive.