South Korea Targets 20 AI Unicorns and One Decacorn by 2030
South Korea's startup ministry plans to grow 20 AI unicorns and one decacorn by 2030, backed by up to 10 billion won or more per company in R&D and commercialization funds.
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giftdetect· the right gift in minutesSouth Korea's Ministry of SMEs and Startups has set a goal of nurturing 20 AI unicorns (valued at 1 trillion won or more) and one AI decacorn (10 trillion won or more) by 2030. The ministry announced the plan on 11 November together with the National AI Strategy Committee, as part of its "AI Startup Beyond Unicorn" strategy.
The gap is wide. According to an October report from the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, the world has 403 AI unicorns, of which South Korea has six (1.5%). Of 41 AI decacorns worldwide, none is Korean.
Three strategies, twelve tasks
The plan has three pillars and 12 detailed tasks. The first is end-to-end support from discovery to scale-up: government, academia and the private sector will jointly identify "early AI unicorns", pick the top 20% by investment and hiring, and set milestones for them. Companies that complete the final stage can receive more than 10 billion won each in R&D and commercialization funding, plus tailored help with technology validation and fundraising. A control tower with the AI committee and an alliance of startups, large companies and investors are also planned.
The second pillar is faster growth. The ministry will supply AI funds, including a next-generation unicorn project and the National Growth Fund, and build an integrated validation system spanning chips, cloud, LLMs and services. It will also extend its "government first validation and purchase" scheme, in which public bodies act as first customers, to AI.
The third pillar targets global expansion: a joint regulatory sandbox project, overseas validation of Korean AI services through the Public Procurement Service, country-specific AI connectors linking startups with buyers, and help recruiting AI talent.
Announced at DETO 2026
The strategy was unveiled at DEEP DIVE INTO 2026, a three-day deep tech forum running from 10 to 12 November at the Grand Hyatt Seoul. Minister Lee So-young also held an open dialogue with the CEOs of humans& (US), Sakana AI (Japan) and Wrtn Technologies (Korea), and the head of Stanford HAI.
"Beyond technology development, AI startups need comprehensive support, from commercialization through validation to investment, market access and overseas expansion," Lee said, promising focused backing so that Korean firms can grow beyond unicorn status to decacorns.
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