-Naver Cloud, Upstage, SK Telecom, NC AI, and LG AI Research selected

-All participating teams demonstrated strong capabilities and meaningful ambition, and are expected to help expand Korea’s AI ecosystem across multiple fronts

-The project now moves into full-scale development of AI foundation models with global impact

The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT, Minister Bae Kyunghoon) announced that, under the “Sovereign AI Foundation Model” project, five elite teams have been selected following a document review (15 → 10 teams) and a presentation evaluation: Naver Cloud, Upstage, SK Telecom, NC AI, and LG AI Research.

In the presentation evaluation, the review covered technical capabilities and development experience; the quality of development goals; the strength of development strategies and techniques; and expected impact and contribution plans. All ten teams that presented demonstrated excellent AI capabilities and innovative strategies for developing AI models. Through intense competition, the pool was narrowed to five teams; after budget deliberation and adjustments, and other required procedures, the selections will be finalized.

The five selected teams’ lead and partner organizations, their goals for developing and securing foundation models, and their plans for domestic impact and contribution are as follows.


※ Please refer to the attached files.