South Korea Selects 5 Teams for AI Foundation Model Project

Sejong, South Korea - The Ministry of Science and ICT announced Monday it has selected five teams to develop artificial intelligence foundation models through a competitive evaluation process.

The ministry selected Naver Cloud, Upstage, SK Telecom, NC AI, and LG Management Development Institute AI Research Institute from 15 initial applicants.

The selection process involved written evaluations that narrowed the field down to 10 teams, followed by presentation evaluations.

The government will provide KRW 328 billion (US$237 million) in support.

This includes KRW 100 billion (approximately US$72 million) for joint data procurement, KRW 28 billion (approximately US$20 million) per team for customized datasets, and KRW 200 billion (approximately US$144 million) for broadcast video training data, the ministry stated.

Naver Cloud's team includes Naver, TwelveLabs, Seoul National University, KAIST, POSTECH, Korea University, and Hanyang University.

The team plans to develop an "omni foundation model" that processes text, voice, image, and video data. It will operate a nationwide AI service platform and an "AI agent marketplace" where users can develop and distribute AI agents.

Upstage leads a consortium of 13 organizations, including financial and technology companies. The team will develop "Solar WBL" and project 10 million users within three years.

It plans to expand business-to-business and business-to-government services across legal, manufacturing, defense, medical, and financial sectors.

SK Telecom's team includes Krafton, 42 Dot, Rebellions, Liner, Selectstar, Seoul National University, and KAIST.

The team will create "post-transformer AI models" for Korean AI services. It plans to develop business-to-consumer and business-to-business AI use cases.

NC AI's team comprises 14 organizations, including Korea University, Seoul National University, Yonsei University, KAIST, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, AI Works, POSCO DX, Lotte Innovate, HL Robotics, InterX, MediaGen, MBC, and NHN.

The team aims to develop 200-billion-parameter foundation models and integrated multimodal systems.

It plans industrial AI transformation through a "DomainOps" framework for manufacturing, retail, robotics, content, and public sectors.

LG Management Development Institute AI Research Institute's team includes LG Uplus, LG CNS, SuperbAI, FuriosaAI, FriendliAI, ESTsoft, ESTAid, Hancom, and Wrtn Technologies.

The team will develop what it calls "frontier AI models" with specialized and general-purpose capabilities.

The ministry stated that all teams presented open-source policies, allowing for the commercial use of developed models by other companies.

Teams also presented plans to expand beyond traditional language models toward multimodal models.

Three teams will receive GPU support from the government. SK Telecom and Naver Cloud will serve as GPU suppliers, providing 1,024 B200 units and 1,024 H100 units, respectively, to other teams.

The project includes a December evaluation that will reduce the number of participants from five teams to four. The initiative will extend through 2027.

Science and ICT Minister Bae Kyoung-hoon stated that the capabilities of the five selected teams, as well as the participation of all teams, were noteworthy.

He described the project as an initial step toward broader access to artificial intelligence technology.

The ministry stated that the project aims to develop what it terms "sovereign AI" foundation models, built from scratch.

(US$1 = KRW 1,384)