South Korea Develops National AI Model with Domestic Tech, Competing with US and China.

South Korea is developing a national AI model using domestic technology, aiming to compete with the US and China. Five corporate alliances, including SK Telecom and LG, are working on the project, leveraging South Korea's strategic position in AI-related technologies. The first AI model is expected to be released by the end of the year and will be open-source, with potential for global application. The initiative underscores South Korea's commitment to "sovereign AI," ensuring strategic AI models and services are developed and operated locally.

South Korea has embarked on an ambitious project to develop a national AI model, investing 530 billion won ($383 million) in the endeavor [1]. The initiative, aimed at competing with the U.S. and China, involves five corporate alliances, including SK Telecom and LG AI Research, leveraging South Korea's strategic position in AI-related technologies.

The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) selected five consortia to develop the AI model, which will be branded as "K-AI Models" and "K-AI Companies" [1]. The first AI model is expected to be released by the end of 2025 and will be open-source, with potential for global application. The project underscores South Korea's commitment to "sovereign AI," ensuring that strategic AI models and services are developed and operated locally.

The consortia will work on the project for six months, with one team being eliminated every six months until only two remain by 2027 [1]. The government will allocate 450 billion won for GPU support, 62.8 billion won for securing AI training data, and roughly 25 billion won for talent recruitment [1]. Additionally, 100 billion won will be used to leverage public data from institutions, and another 200 billion won will be used for high-quality broadcast video datasets to support AI training [1].

South Korea's telecommunication giant, SK Telecom, will include Krafton and Rebellions among other companies in its consortia [2]. The company aims to create a near self-sufficient AI industry and position itself as an alternative to the U.S. and China [2]. The initiative will draw on the strategic position of some of South Korea's firms and the technology they develop, which is crucial to AI, such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM) from SK Hynix and chip manufacturing from Samsung [2].

The consortia will still rely on graphics processing units (GPUs) from American firm Nvidia, which have become the gold standard for training AI models [2]. SK Telecom will train the models it develops on its own Titan supercomputer, which is made up of Nvidia GPUs, as well as an AI data center the company is developing with Amazon [2].

South Korea's AI model roadmap aims to create models that can rival those from frontier AI labs, which are pouring billions of dollars into research and development [2]. The first model from SK Telecom's consortium is expected to be released by the end of 2025, with the goal of creating a very strong state-of-the-art open-source model [2].

The initiative presents significant export potential, as a proven sovereign AI model could become a valuable product for other nations seeking alternatives to U.S. or Chinese systems, strengthening South Korea's position in the global AI landscape [2].

References:
[1] https://www.cryptopolitan.com/south-korea-national-ai-model/
[2] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/08/south-korea-to-launch-national-ai-model-in-race-with-us-and-china.html