[Award] Data Alliance Wins "Global AI Impact Award"… Proving Its Global Capabilities

Data Alliance, the first company in Korea to introduce a GPU (graphics processing unit) sharing service, is firmly establishing itself in the AI infrastructure market, providing its service to a range of AI companies and research institutions just one year after launch.

Recently, the company won the "Global AI Impact Award" at a startup event hosted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, earning recognition for its global growth potential — and it is expected to continue producing notable achievements at home and abroad.

According to Data Alliance on the 21st, major domestic AI-related companies in areas such as chatbots, webtoons, voice generation, and search services are using its GPU-sharing platform "gcube."

CEO Kwangbeom Lee of Data Alliance (right) poses for a photo after winning the "Global AI Impact Award" at the awards ceremony of "Try Everything 2025," a global startup festival recently hosted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government. / Courtesy of Data Alliance

The company is also putting gcube to use across businesses and research institutes — for example, participating as a key joint research institution with the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) in the "K-Cloud technology development" project, which utilizes AI semiconductors.

gcube, which Data Alliance introduced in September last year, is a GPU-sharing platform that pools idle GPU resources for use in cloud computing.

Dubbed "the Airbnb of GPUs," the service connects high-spec GPUs sitting idle in places such as internet cafés (PC bangs) to the cloud, allowing companies that need them to use them at low cost. It is structured so that other companies and individuals can also supply their spare GPUs and share in the revenue. Through this sharing-economy model, AI development companies can cut costs by up to 70% compared to before, while GPU providers earn extra income from idle resources.

Within a year of launch, its recognition has grown as it has been adopted across various businesses and public institutions.

"There are many cases where companies that have successfully commercialized real AI services come to us first because they feel burdened by GPU costs," a Data Alliance representative said. "Thanks to the service becoming well known, we've been listed on the Naver Marketplace and are exploring AI-infrastructure collaborations with organizations such as a Center for Creative Economy & Innovation, a startup academy, and a Technopark — so we expect related inquiries and collaborations to increase further."

Data Alliance recently won the "Global AI Impact Award" at the awards ceremony of "Try Everything 2025," a global startup festival hosted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government. The second-largest award after the Grand Prize, it is given to teams that possess not only technical excellence but also influence and innovation in the global market. According to the company, it won in recognition of the global impact of its AI infrastructure service, gcube.

Data Alliance plans to renew the service soon and to actively target not only the domestic market but the global market as well.

"By continuously driving AI infrastructure innovation through GPU sharing, we will strive to ensure that anyone in the world can enjoy the benefits of AI technology," said CEO Kwangbeom Lee of Data Alliance. "We will accelerate our global expansion while growing gcube into a service that contributes to the development of the AI industry and delivers a positive impact on society."

Reporter Jisun Kim, ET News (river@etnews.com)

Source : https://m.etnews.com/20250919000164?obj=Tzo4OiJzdGRDbGFzcyI6Mjp7czo3OiJyZWZlcmVyIjtOO3M6NzoiZm9yd2FyZCI7czoxMzoid2ViIHRvIG1vYmlsZSI7fQ%3D%3D