Five consortia of the national AI foundation model project unveiled their first-stage results, taking a major step forward in Korea’s ambition to become one of the world's top artificial intelligence (AI) powerhouses. During the first presentation event for the project at Coex in southern Seoul, Tuesday, five teams — led by Naver Cloud, Upstage, SK Telecom, LG AI Research and NC AI — introduced their initial models and road maps for further development. The project, which kicked off in August, aims at building independent, globally competitive foundation AI models, with the government investing around 200 billion won ($136 million) to support the consortia with high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs), datasets and R&D personnel. The government will conduct evaluations twice a year, removing one team each time until only two finalists remain by the first half of 2027. Drawing more than 1,000 industry leaders and researchers, the event featured the teams’ presentation, along with booths to demonstrate their developments to the general public. “Many countries around the w