Visitors eat and cheer together in the outdoor garden of Korea House, a hub promoting Korean sports and culture during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in Paris, July 31, 2024. Korea Times file

Korea has spent more than two decades perfecting the art of the cross-border pop phenomenon. Now, government officials are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) and intellectual property rights to ensure the nation’s cultural juggernaut doesn't run out of steam.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Financial Services Commission (FSC) jointly announced, Wednesday, the launch of a 150 billion won ($108 million) K-Culture Value-Up Fund. The public-private vehicle represents Seoul’s largest target-driven effort to date aimed at pairing state-backed venture capital with emerging technology in the creative arts.

Under the plan, the government will chip in 50 billion won from state coffers, flanked by 30 billion won from the state-run Korea Development Bank and the Advanced Strategic Industry Fund. Managing institutions hope to leverage that anchor seed into attracting more than 70 billion won in private capital.

The strategy marks a structural pivot for Korea’s cultural policy. Previous state-guided venture funds in media and entertainment hovered around 50 billion won, a figure officials say struggled to meet the ballooning production costs of modern blockbuster media and global platform plays.

"One piece of content now expands across multiple industries," said Kim Kyung-hwa, director general of cultural industry policy at the culture ministry. "Webtoons and games bleed into television, film and live performance, driving tourism and consumer exports along the way."

The funding will be split into two primary buckets. Two-thirds of the pool — 100 billion won — is earmarked for AI and intellectual property. Venture firms tapping into this tranche must direct at least 25 percent of their funds toward companies applying AI tech to content creation or adapting underlying intellectual property across music, gaming and video. The remaining 50 billion won will back traditional content production and distribution.

The initiative is also the first project executed under Korea's new National Growth Fund model, designed to combine capital across separate government ministries to bankroll large-scale domestic industries.

“The National Growth Fund will continue to link the Advanced Strategic Industry Fund with initiatives across various ministries,” said Son Young-chae, head of the National Growth Fund Task Force at the FSC. “By expanding fund sizes and enabling large-scale investments, we plan to actively uncover and support key national priority projects.”

The government will accept proposals from asset managers through Aug. 12, with final selections expected in September.

This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.