"Only the Top 2 Will Survive"... Fierce Competition Begins Among 5 National AI Teams

Government Budget Invested in GPUs, Data, and Labor Costs
Promoting AI Popularization Through Sustainable Independent Technology
Only Two Teams Will Remain by 2027 in a Survival-Style Competition

A fierce competition will unfold over the next two years to select a national representative artificial intelligence (AI) company for all industries and the entire population. The key will be to create a model that not only meets global standards for high performance but is also easily accessible and usable by anyone.

The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to evaluate the five consortia participating in the independent AI foundation project every six months, reducing the number to four teams in the first half of next year, three teams in the second half, and finally leaving only two teams in 2027. During this process, the government will provide support for the development of independent AI foundation models, including graphics processing units (GPUs), data, and labor costs. For example, in the second half of this year alone, the government budget allocated to support the rental of 1,000 GPUs for one team amounts to 31 billion won.

From 5 elite teams to 2... How will the evaluation proceed?

Although the specific evaluation method has not yet been determined, the five elite teams face the challenge of developing sovereign AI that reduces dependence on foreign technology and ensures sustainability. In addition, it will be advantageous to enhance the scalability of the developed AI models so that they can be widely used across various industries. In particular, a meticulous strategy is required to decide whether to pursue B2C (business-to-consumer) to become a widely used AI for the entire population, or to focus on B2B (business-to-business).

The Ministry of Science and ICT aims to develop an independent AI model that achieves 95% of the performance level of global AI models. For language models, support for both Korean and English is mandatory, and the goal is to expand into a multimodal model capable of simultaneously processing and understanding various types of data, including images, audio, and video. The Ministry plans to establish a Korean-style performance evaluation system that reflects the country's culture and social values as a standard through a public contest.

Mobilizing all technology and expertise... What are each team's strategies?

The five elite teams are entering fierce competition ahead of the first phase evaluation scheduled for December. Looking at each team's strategy, Naver Cloud has proposed building a single model (Omni Foundation Model) capable of integrated understanding and generation of various types of data. Based on this model, the company will operate a national AI service platform, providing experiential AI services to the entire population and supporting the development and distribution of AI agents by anyone through an open platform. SK Telecom aims to develop AI agents that can be easily utilized by all citizens and to lead an AI transformation in the office, manufacturing, automotive, gaming, and robotics sectors.

The consortium led by LG AI Research has set a goal to develop and release as open source the "K-Exaone," an AI model with more than 100% of the performance of the world's top AI models. Together with participating companies, the research institute plans to launch various services based on K-Exaone and build an AI industry ecosystem. The NC AI Consortium aims to develop a multimodal foundation model for AI transformation. Upstage aims to secure global leadership and AI technology sovereignty by developing its own AI model, "Solar WBL." Upstage is the only consortium among those selected for this project to apply for support in the talent sector.

All of these elite teams have applied for support in the data sector. Starting in September, a total of 10 billion won worth of high-quality data will be provided, and each team will receive an additional 2.8 billion won to build and process specialized datasets. Regarding GPUs, except for SK Telecom and Naver Cloud, which were selected as GPU suppliers for this project and will lease GPUs this year, the remaining teams will receive GPU support. SK Telecom and Naver Cloud will be eligible for GPU support starting in the second half of next year, after the completion of their leasing projects.

Meanwhile, SK Telecom plans to utilize a cluster of more than 1,000 of the latest AI chips, Blackwell B200, to develop the national AI foundation model. The cluster is named "Haein," symbolizing the ambition for the SK Telecom B200 cluster to become the K-sovereign AI infrastructure that embodies the digital Tripitaka Koreana.