From Developmental State to Platform State: The Case of South Korea's AI Policy

ABSTRACT This research note examines South Korea's artificial intelligence (AI) strategy to illustrate the emergence of state platformization—a governance mode where the state acts as a provider of digital infrastructures, data, and standards. Moving beyond traditional developmental models, this study conceptualizes the state as a platform operator that synthesizes post‐developmentalist coordination with neoliberal rationalities. Drawing on theories from Linda Weiss and Mariana Mazzucato, the analysis shows how the Korean state functions as an entrepreneurial risk‐taker and catalytic orchestrator. By providing foundational ‘operating systems’—such as the Data Dam and high‐performance computing resources—while utilizing neoliberal tools like regulatory sandboxes, the state incentivizes private‐sector innovation while maintaining strategic autonomy. The Korean case demonstrates that state platformization is a distinctive hybrid formation that reconfigures state‐market relations in the digital era, offering critical insights for comparative research across East Asian democracies.