South Korea is preparing to hand every citizen free access to artificial intelligence, with unlimited tokens and no usage caps. The service, run by three consortia, will rely on up to 512 Nvidia B200 chips supplied by the state. Beta testing is scheduled for September.
How the service will work
The plan is straightforward: any South Korean resident gets a login, and from there they can use AI tools as much as they want. The government hasn't spelled out exactly which models or applications will be available, but the infrastructure is being built around the three consortia that will operate the service. Each consortium will handle its own slice of the system, though the chips are shared across all of them.
Unlimited tokens is the headline feature. That means no daily limits, no premium tiers, no pay-per-use surprises. For a country that already has some of the fastest internet in the world, the move positions AI as a public utility rather than a paid add-on.
The hardware behind the plan
The state is supplying up to 512 Nvidia B200 chips, the high-end accelerators that are in short supply globally. That's a meaningful number, though not enormous by data-center standards. The chips will be pooled across the three consortia, which suggests the government expects heavy demand once the service opens to everyone.
Nvidia's B200 is one of the most powerful AI processors on the market, designed for training and running large models. South Korea's decision to buy them in bulk and lease them out for free is a bet that broad access will pay off in skills, innovation, or both.
Beta testing in September
The September beta will be the first real test. The consortia will likely start with a limited group of users before opening the gates to the whole population. The government hasn't said how many people will be in the beta, or how long it will run before full launch.
What's clear is that the infrastructure is being built now. The chips need to be installed, the consortia need to integrate their systems, and the login process has to handle what could be tens of millions of users. September is the deadline for all of that to come together.
After the beta, the next question is whether the service stays free. The government has committed to free access, but unlimited tokens on expensive hardware is a costly promise. The consortia will be watching usage patterns closely, and the September test will show just how much demand a free, unlimited AI service actually generates.
