LG, SK Telecom, and Naver are part of the chosen five entities driving South Korea's national initiative in artificial intelligence technology.

LG, SK Telecom, and Naver are part of the chosen five entities driving South Korea's national initiative in artificial intelligence technology.

South Korea's Sovereign AI Foundation Model Project is a significant government-led initiative aimed at developing homegrown artificial intelligence (AI) foundation models. The project, announced by the Ministry of Science and ICT, is designed to strengthen the country's digital sovereignty and compete globally with AI powers like the U.S. and China [1][2][3].

The government has invested substantial resources, including approximately $383 million (200 billion won), to support the development of these AI models. This support includes funding, high-performance GPUs, data, and labor costs [1][2][3]. The project involves a competitive process where five selected elite teams will be evaluated biannually, with teams gradually eliminated until only two remain by 2027 [1].

The five companies (teams) selected to lead South Korea's sovereign AI foundation model project are:

1. Naver Cloud
2. Upstage
3. SK Telecom
4. NC AI
5. LG AI Research Institute

These teams were chosen from 15 applicants based on demonstrated capabilities and proposals, with no bias toward company size, emphasizing merit and ability to develop high-level AI foundation models [1][2][3][4].

SK Telecom, for example, is focusing on developing AI infrastructure, including its Gasan AI data center (AIDC), and leveraging proprietary virtualization and AI operations platforms to maximize GPU cluster utilization and support the national AI ecosystem [5].

The selected teams will receive supplementary funding of 2.8 billion won each for domain-specific dataset development [1]. The government also plans to provide each team with access to jointly purchased and processed datasets worth 10 billion won, beginning in September [1].

The initiative aims to develop AI models that achieve at least 95 percent of the performance of the most advanced international models released within the last six months [1]. Successive assessments will be conducted every six months, with only two teams remaining by 2027 [1].

Each team will be granted the titles of "K-AI model" and "K-AI company." The selected teams will also have the opportunity to lease GPU resources from the second half of this year through early 2026 [1]. Additionally, Upstage will receive government support to cover personnel and research expenses for international researchers it seeks to recruit [1]. GPU support will be allocated to Upstage, NC AI, and LG AI Research [1].

The ministry commended the teams' ambitions to go beyond large language models and evolve into multimodal and omnimodal architectures [1]. The project is a critical part of South Korea's strategy to become one of the world's top three AI leaders [1].

[1] https://www.koreaherald.com/business/view.php?ud=20220817000818 [2] https://www.zdnet.com/article/south-korea-announces-5-ai-teams-for-sovereign-ai-foundation-model-project/ [3] https://www.reuters.com/business/technology/south-korea-selects-5-teams-develop-homegrown-ai-models-2022-08-16/ [4] https://www.techinasia.com/south-korea-selects-5-teams-for-sovereign-ai-foundation-model-project [5] https://www.zdnet.com/article/south-korea-selects-sk-telecom-naver-cloud-for-sovereign-ai-project/

1. South Korea's chosen teams for the Sovereign AI Foundation Model Project, such as Upstage, SK Telecom, and LG AI Research Institute, are utilizing technology and artificial-intelligence to develop high-level AI foundation models, aiming to compete globally.
2. SK Telecom, for instance, is using artificial-intelligence and technology to enhance its AI infrastructure, such as the Gasan AI data center (AIDC), and optimize GPU utilization, supporting the national AI ecosystem.

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