President Kwang Hyung Lee plans to establish a global campus in New York, USA by 2025, which will make KAIST the first Korean university to found an official branch school abroad. This undertaking was initiated upon President Lee’s belief that for KAIST to become a world-class school, it is necessary for students to have a global education and for professors to engage in international joint research. The plan was promoted together with Hee Nam Bae, chairman of the Global Leadership Foundation (GLF), who shared the vision of educating KAIST students to compete on a global stage and become leaders in shaping the world, and Big investment group. 

On December 10, 2021, President Lee announced the purpose, prospects, and plans of the New York campus at an online press conference. “The New York campus will inspire KAISTians to dream big and step out into the world by showing them the greater world. Professors will have an international network to conduct international joint studies; young Koreans will pave their ways into the global market in New York,” he said. By founding the New York campus, President Lee aims to broaden Korean students' perspectives, to extend the scope of professors’ research activities, and to drive a paradigm shift in the Korean education system.

Currently, KAIST is in the early stages of establishing the New York campus. Chairman Bae is in charge of the initial stage concerning the land purchase and building remodeling, having written an MOU with KAIST to donate a 33,000 square meter site and buildings for the New York campus. Some candidates for the campus location include Long Island and the State of New York. President Lee plans to hold thorough consultations with the board of directors, the Korean government, and the KAIST community to finalize the site. Afterwards, to follow through with President Lee’s plan, KAIST needs a permit in establishing and operating the New York campus, and has to recruit students both from the main campus and the US.

President Lee plans to take his “dream big” philosophy to the next level. After establishing a campus in New York, he intends to make headway into founding a campus in Silicon Valley. The New York campus, which will serve as the hub of cultural, financial, and bio industries, will have new departments for culture-tech, art-tech, and other interdisciplinary areas such as AI-finance. The Silicon Valley campus, on the other hand, will specialize in startup, AI, ICT, and semiconductor industries. It can be seen that the purpose of establishing global campuses is to provide the environment most suitable for each field to students and to create an atmosphere of positive competition among the experts. The New York campus is an entity that corresponds to the president’s QAIST strategy and will become KAIST’s first step towards the world stage.