Hanwha to invest $36B in launch vehicles, satellites and orbiting AI data center

Hanwha Group plans to invest a total of 55 trillion won ($36 billion) in the space and AI sectors, including new launch vehicles, assembly facilities and an orbital data center by 2040.

The plans for the Yeongnam region — encompassing the Gyeongsang provinces and neighboring metropolitan areas — that were unveiled on Friday align with President Lee Jae Myung's push for regional "megaprojects," with the AI-space initiative forming one pillar of the broader development strategy. 

Hanwha Aerospace has committed to an investment of roughly 23 trillion won in space launch vehicles, assembly facilities and test sites for launcher development, which will eventually transition to commercial launches.

Hanwha Systems plans to spend some 20 trillion won to acquire very-low-orbit synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites — which use radar signals rather than cameras to capture high-resolution images day or night and through cloud cover — along with an AI data center in space and satellite communication networks.

Hanwha hopes to establish an integrated space infrastructure that could be designed "to feed information gathered in orbit into an AI system that would inform military decision-making and operations," it said. 

"The first step toward securing space sovereignty is developing our own launch vehicle, and Hanwha will build the capability for Korea to reach space at any time, on our own terms, through independent launcher development," Hanwha Group Vice Chairman Kim Dong-kwan said during a public briefing on Friday held in Jinju, South Gyeongsang.

The infrastructure will include a constellation of reconnaissance satellites at an altitude of 350 kilometers (217 miles) collecting data from land and sea, an orbiting AI data center positioned at 400 kilometers, and a low-Earth-orbit satellite communications network at 900 kilometers that transmits imagery and other data in real time.

The company's ultrahigh-resolution, low-orbit reconnaissance satellites are capable of identifying ground objects at a resolution of 10 to 15 centimeters (4 to 6 inches).

Hanwha Systems plans to launch and operate 64 SAR satellites by 2031 to maintain continuous real-time detection capability.

The orbiting AI data center will store and analyze the information collected by its satellites. The facility's computing power will be boosted by using new high-efficiency solar panels.

The data collected in orbit will be relayed both to the orbiting data center and to the ground without interruption. Hanwha Systems will begin the service with 192 satellites, then launch more than 60 additional orbiters over time to extend the satellites' operational lifespan and expand coverage to the Arctic region.

The satellites that make up this integrated space infrastructure will all be launched aboard rockets built by Hanwha Aerospace.

Around 10 trillion will be poured into building a defense AI data center in Changwon, South Gyeongsang, which will integrate and utilize information collected across space, land, sea and air.

The Changwon facility will begin operations this year with a capacity of 45 megawatts, expanding in stages to 135 megawatts by 2032. 

Hanwha will also use 2 trillion won to develop a Defense OS, a battlefield-specific AI model trained and refined using accumulated combat data, which enables weapons like K9 self-propelled howitzers, unmanned surface and underwater vessels and autonomous drones to make decisions and respond independently. 

BY SARAH CHEA   [[email protected]]