Exclusive: 7 out of 10 government GPU support projects have a utilization rate of less than 50%

The government's support for GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) technology in research projects has yielded mixed results, with 7 out of 10 supported initiatives showing GPU utilization rates below the 50% threshold. According to data received from the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, out of 212 projects in total, 145 (68.4%) had an average GPU utilization rate below 50% between March and August of this year.

Of these, 63.8% of the 102 research collaborations and 82.7% of the 43 national AI projects fell short of the 50% benchmark. Even more concerning, 16.9% of the 27 research collaborations and 34.6% of the 18 national AI projects had utilization rates as low as 20%.

The government's investment in GPU technology reached an estimated 1.459 trillion won last year, securing 13,136 GPUs through contracts. Assuming the contract values, the H200 model at 3056 units and the B200 model at 2,080 units were purchased, with the government utilizing 14,560 units in total. Of these, 4224 units were allocated to 160 research collaborations and 2,832 units to 43 national AI projects.

Ministry officials explained that GPU utilization rates vary depending on the project stage, such as data preprocessing, training, and inference, and some research with a compensatory phase showed lower GPU utilization rates. This discrepancy arises despite the government's efforts to enhance AI research and development productivity and competitiveness through GPU provision. 이주희, a lawmaker from the Democratic Party, emphasized the need for measures to encourage usage in low-usage projects and to verify the plan's effectiveness in deploying GPU resources as intended.