South Korea’s electricity demand could rise by 25 to 30 gigawatts from artificial intelligence alone as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix accelerate semiconductor expansion and data centers proliferate. Meeting that increase entirely with nuclear power would require capacity equivalent to about 20 reactors, or roughly 77% of the country’s existing 26-unit fleet. Climate, Energy and Environment Minister Kim Sung-hwan said nuclear power remains an indispensable option, while regions including Seoul may need more solar generation or liquefied natural gas plants. The government plans to release an updated energy roadmap in October and aims to phase out coal-fired generation by 2040. South Korea is also expanding its computing capacity: the No. 6 national supercomputer, equipped with 8,496 Nvidia GPUs, is scheduled to begin official service in December with theoretical performance of 614 petaflops. The parallel initiatives underscore the infrastructure challenge created by the country’s push into semiconductors, artificial intelligence and high-performance computing.