Sovereign AI Project: 4 Teams Vie for Next Stage in Korea

Four teams are now competing in the second stage of South Korea's "Sovereign AI Foundation Model" project. This initiative aims to select the nation's top artificial intelligence champions. LG AI Research, SK Telecom, Upstage, and Motif Technologies are the contenders, but only three will move forward. One team will be eliminated. This stage focuses on AI agent capabilities, industrial applicability, and ecosystem expansion, unlike the first stage which centered on technological completeness. LG AI Research is showcasing its K-EXAONE 2.0 model, with 750 billion parameters. This is the largest model in the country and shows a 10% higher average score across 24 benchmark metrics. SK Telecom emphasizes industrial use with its A.X K2 model, featuring 688 billion parameters and expanding proof-of-concept cases in various industries. Upstage aims to lower AI adoption barriers with its Solar Open 2 model, using a Mixture of Experts architecture. It can run cost-efficiently on two NVIDIA H200 GPUs. Motif Technologies, the newest entrant, highlights technological independence with its 314 billion parameter Motif 3 model, developed entirely in-house. The outcome of this evaluation will significantly shape the future of national AI development.