South Korea rolls out national AI model to boost tech competitiveness

South Korea has launched a task force that includes some of its biggest companies to establish a national foundational AI model. The model will include domestic technology, as the country tries to keep pace with the U.S. and China in the AI race.

Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) revealed on August 4 that the country selected five consortia to develop the project. The five elite tech teams include Naver, LG AI Research, SK Telecom, NC AI, and Upstage. 

Seoul invests 530 billion won in its AI foundation model

The government will invest roughly 530 billion won ($383 million) in the AI foundation model, which it expects will be established by 2027. 450 billion won will be allocated for GPU support, 62.8 billion won for securing AI training data, and roughly 25 billion won for talent recruitment. 

South Korea also plans to use 100 billion won to leverage public data from institutions, including the National Archives and the National Institute of Korean History. Another 200 billion won will be used for high-quality broadcast video datasets to support AI training.

The ministry said the five consortia will be branded as “K-AI Models” and “K-AI Companies” at an upcoming kickoff ceremony. Kim Kyung-man, director of AI policy at the ministry, said the government will evaluate each team’s AI model every six months, eliminating one team at a time until only two remain by 2027.

Science Minister Bae Kyung-hoon acknowledged that each team has proven its ability to develop efficient AI models. He added that the initiative is a turning point for Korea’s digital sovereignty and the future of its AI industry.

The project is meant to leverage the technology that some of South Korea’s companies develop, which is crucial in the artificial intelligence sector. One of those firms, such as SK Hynix, supplies dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips and flash memory chips. The company’s high-bandwidth memory (HBM) is also crucial to Nvidia’s products.

“This means the country possesses the entire AI stack, from chips to cloud to AI models, and also benefits from a robust community of advanced AI researchers who are actively publishing papers and securing patents.”

-Nick Patience, VP & AI Practice Lead at The Futurum Group.

South Korea also plans to include other foreign companies in the consortia. Companies like Nvidia, known best for training AI models, will help with its graphics processing units (GPUs). Nvidia’s GPUs are found in SK Telecom’s Titan supercomputer, which will be used to train the models and the AI data center it is developing.

South Korea seeks to become a top-three AI leader globally

Seoul plans to include the country’s technologies to run the project, from semiconductors to software. It also aims to create a near self-sufficient AI industry and position itself as an alternative to the U.S. and China.

South Korea’s President Lee Jae-myung has advocated to make the country one of the world’s top three AI leaders. Tortoise Media’s annual Global AI Index currently positions the country sixth globally in AI capability as of 2024.

Korea’s telecommunication giant, SK Telecom, will include Krafton and Rebellions among other companies in its consortia. Kim Taeyoon, Foundation Model Manager of SK Telecom, acknowledged that South Korea is transitioning in its technology development. He noted that the country focuses on ensuring it lays the technical foundation to be competitive at the national level.

Taeyoon believes several South Korean companies would excel in the AI industry. He said the country already sees the possibility that it’s capable of creating a good AI stack.

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