Storylines / Organisation
SK Telecom
5 developments involving SK Telecom in 1 country or body. The most recent is Korea picks SK Telecom, KT and Kakao consortia to build free ‘AI for all’ services, 28 Aug 2026.
KeyStory
- Korea picks SK Telecom, KT and Kakao consortia to build free ‘AI for all’ services
Korea is paying three telecom and platform groups to give every citizen a free AI assistant built mostly on domestic models, with GPUs supplied by the state.
- Korea’s sovereign AI project cuts Motif and advances LG, SK Telecom and Upstage
Korea’s state-backed frontier model will come from LG, SK Telecom or Upstage, and the weighting that cut the top benchmark scorer is under scrutiny.
- SK Telecom releases A.X K2, a 688bn parameter model from Korea’s sovereign AI project
Korea’s government-backed push for its own frontier models produced its largest open release from a telecom operator.
- Korea cuts Naver Cloud and NC AI from its national AI model project; LG scores highest
Korean model developers learned the project’s originality rule is enforced: a team that reused foreign components without retraining lost state GPUs and data.
- Korea picks Naver Cloud, SK Telecom, LG, NC AI and Upstage to build national AI models
Five Korean developers received state support, starting with GPUs for three of them, to build domestic foundation models, with funding tied to surviving six-monthly cuts.