KIM JAE-CHUL MAKES DONATION TO KAIST

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Dongwon Group Honorary Chairman Kim Jae-chul decided to donate 50 billion won to the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. The retired business tycoon hoped that the donation would help Korea grow into an artificial intelligence powerhouse.

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Dongwon Group Honorary Chairman Kim Jae-chul pledged to donate 50 billion won to the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology over the next ten years. He hopes the donation would be used to teach young scientists as well as in AI research. Kim is known to have run his corporation while looking at the Pacific ocean on an upside-down world map hung in his office. The Dongwon Group founder expects KAIST to pioneer a new continent in the sea of data through AI convergence technology.

[Soundbite] KIM JAE-CHUL(DONGWON GROUP HONORARY CHAIRMAN) : "If we use national resources and join the global race to develop AI, I believe Korea can become a leading AI country and contribute to world history for the first time."

KAIST renamed its AI graduate school, which opened last year as “Kim Jae-chul Graduate School of AI”. The institute plans to increase the number of professors in the AI graduate school from the current 13 to 40 by the year 2030 and use the entire donation in AI studies.

[Soundbite] SHIN SUNG-CHUL(KAIST PRESIDENT) : "This is the starting point in taking the country to the era of the 4th industrial revolution, contribute to prosperity and growth of mankind, and show Korea's worth."

KAIST received about 147.4 billion won in donation pledges in this year alone. The money will be spent on nurturing brilliant minds in science and technology.