GWDC 2026 Korea is taking place on Sept. 29-30, 2026, at the aT Center in Seoul, South Korea. The event is organized by Web3Labs, with Techub News, HypaiLabs, and TokenPost serving as co-organizers.
South Korea’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Koo Yun-cheol delivered remarks via remote connection, congratulating attendees on what he called a representative developer event in Asia and offering his congratulations to developers and university students taking part in the 48-hour hackathon.
Koo says South Korea has the foundations to serve as an AI testing platform
Koo said the AI era needs more than people who develop AI. Applying AI to everyday life and using it to raise productivity matters as well. He said South Korea has memory semiconductors, ultra-high-speed internet, and well-developed digital data in the public sector. If those parts of the AI ecosystem are used effectively, he said, the country could become a global AI “testing platform.”
Remarks also covered domestic NPU development and the hackathon theme
He also highlighted the importance of AI semiconductors, saying South Korea is developing NPUs that can improve inference, lower power consumption at data centers, and increase efficiency at the edge. He said using South Korean-developed NPUs in the hackathon carries particular significance.
Koo added that this year’s hackathon is themed around AI Agents. He said he hopes participants move beyond the stage of using existing tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini and build the next generation of AI Agents.
He said he hopes participants, regardless of school or academic major, achieve their best results. He also said he expects the competition to produce a world-class unicorn and help developers grow into founders of global companies.