Seoul, South Korea - KT (NYSE: KT) announced its strategic alliances with top domestic AI startups Upstage and Qanda.
This collaboration is backed by a KRW 20 billion (US$15 million) equity investment.
Why it matters.
At the recent GSMA M360 APAC in Seoul, South Korea, the new CEO painted a big picture of the ecosystem KT and its startups are creating together.
The conglomerate aims to steer the domestic panorama of AI solutions, culminating in a comprehensive Korean AI full stack.
The Key Points
KT aims to strengthen its lead in deploying mammoth AI and is determined to pioneer an open AI ecosystem.
An extension of this strategy includes further collaborations and investments in AI startups.
The Partners
- Upstage: Recognized for its outstanding generative AI capabilities, Upstage made headlines by securing the top spot on the Open LLM (Large Language Model) leaderboard.
- Qanda: This education startup stands tall with its top-ranked education app, the number one app in 20 countries.
The Goal and Target Market
KT's target market is the B2B AI market;
- Cultivate a private LLM solution tailored for enterprises.
- Partner with Upstage to develop a B2B-focused LLM.
- Partner with Qanda to promote B2C AI solutions, including an education-focused LLM and the proliferation of AI on educational platforms.
The Big Picture
Expand KT's AI infrastructure: KT is focused on leveraging its super AI and 'AI full stack' infrastructure to expand the domestic B2B AI space.
To clarify, 'AI Full Stack' is an amalgamation that includes AI infrastructure elements such as AI semiconductors and cloud and customer-centric AI application services.
Future offerings: Leveraging its in-house LLM and KT Cloud's powerful AI computing framework, KT plans to develop customized AI services for enterprise customers.
This will include a specially designed "enterprise-only super AI" enriched with advanced security features for the public and financial sectors.
Past investments: In July, KT Group invested an additional KRW 15 billion ($11 million) in AI infrastructure software company "Moreh".
The conglomerate aims to steer the domestic AI solution panorama, culminating in a comprehensive Korean AI full stack.
This includes combining KT Group's AI infrastructure, Moreh's semiconductor-based AI software, and Rebellion's semiconductor capabilities.
* US$1=KRW 1336.31
