South Korea’s government is embarking on the final piece of its national AI sovereignty strategy: developing a cybersecurity-specialized AI foundation model. With the application deadline set for August 26, major South Korean ICT companies including SK Telecom, Naver Cloud, and LG CNS are finalizing consortium formations, setting the stage for an intense bidding war.
According to industry sources on August 24, the project—jointly pursued by South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT and the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA)—aims to consolidate domestic AI security capabilities and develop an independent security-specialized AI model. The initiative responds to heightened alarm over advanced global AI systems such as Anthropic’s “Mythos” and OpenAI’s latest models, which are now capable of autonomously probing security vulnerabilities and even executing cyberattacks.
The selected consortium will receive 256 B200 GPUs (32 nodes) for a 10-month period. The government plans to unveil and review an interim model at the five-month mark before deciding whether to continue support. Final evaluation will focus on technical capability, development experience, development goals, marketability, and ripple effects.
Industry observers expect SK Telecom, Naver Cloud, LG CNS, and Bidraft to participate as consortium leaders. Naver Cloud has teamed up with the National Security Research Institute, Tiori, and Hunesion. SK Telecom has partnered with security specialists including SK Shieldus, AhnLab, and Genians. LG CNS is preparing to participate alongside affiliates LG Uplus and LG AI Research, building on its involvement in the ModuAI project. Bidraft, an AI startup founded in 2024, is also considering participation.
Once this project gains momentum, the government’s “sovereign AI” ecosystem is expected to achieve greater completeness. The Dokpamo project—aimed at developing an independent AI foundation model—has already completed its second-round evaluation and been narrowed to three teams. LG AI Research, SK Telecom, and Upstage have advanced to the third evaluation round, with the final selection of two teams expected early next year. The process introduced the “AAII” performance metric from global AI model evaluation platform Artificial Analysis, along with user evaluations open to the general public. Motif Technologies was eliminated despite its self-developed “Motif 3” scoring 47 points on the AAII benchmark, ranking 10th globally.
Competition for ModuAI—a project to build AI services for everyday public use—has also intensified. Six consortia submitted proposals for the initiative, which aims to build a free nationwide AI chatbot and public AI agents using South Korean-developed AI technology. SK Telecom and KT each formed consortia as lead organizations, while Kakao joined forces with LG’s core affiliates including LG AI Research, LG Uplus, LG CNS, and LG Electronics. ESTsoft also entered the race, while MKD and Xenon participated independently without consortium partners. The selected company will receive a total of 512 B200 GPUs, with the government targeting contractor selection by the end of this month and service launch within the year.
Separately, South Korea’s telecom industry has begun phasing out 3G mobile services. SK Telecom halted new 3G subscriptions on August 20, targeting full service termination by the end of 2027. KT has also begun preparations to stop new subscriptions. According to Ministry of Science and ICT data, South Korea’s 3G mobile lines totaled 335,849 as of May this year, representing just 0.6% of all mobile connections.
This security-focused AI project is a core pillar of the government’s AI sovereignty strategy, following Dokpamo and ModuAI. As AI evolves into a tool for cyberattacks, securing independent defensive technology has emerged as a national security imperative. “As global AI companies aggressively pursue automated vulnerability detection and penetration testing, the need for independent models capable of countering these threats has grown significantly,” an industry source said.
The government’s successive AI initiatives are expected to drive investment expansion across South Korea’s AI ecosystem. With GPU infrastructure support accumulating across Dokpamo, ModuAI, and the security-focused AI project, domestic companies’ large-scale model training capabilities are expected to strengthen in tandem. Notably, SK Telecom and LG CNS are preparing to participate in this security project on the heels of their respective involvement in Dokpamo and ModuAI, sharpening the competitive landscape among major conglomerates vying for AI sovereignty.