NC AI, a subsidiary of NCSOFT, is leading a government initiative to develop an independent AI foundation model. On the 31st, they unveiled the consortium’s participating institutions. The initiative, referred to as the “Independent AI Foundation Model Development Project,” aims to go beyond simple technological advancements to secure digital sovereignty and enhance national competitiveness. Fourteen key entities from industry, research, and academia are involved in this effort.
Included in the consortium are prominent entities such as POSTECH DX, NHN, Lotte Innovate, HL Robotics, InterX, MediaZen, MBC, AiWorks, ETRI, KAIST, Korea University, Seoul National University, and Yonsei University. NC AI, the leading organization, developed an independent foundation model, “VARCO,” from scratch, which is being utilized across diverse services like gaming and fashion.
Key R&D is managed by globally renowned academic experts. KAIST lays the theoretical groundwork for next-gen AI technologies like 3D vision and robotics. Korea University leverages its LLM (Large Language Model) development experience to handle post-training and optimization algorithms. Seoul National University focuses on generating high-quality motion data for Physical AI, and Yonsei University is in charge of designing multimodal architecture and ensuring AI reliability and safety.
Industrial entities will lead technology development and dissemination. ETRI, with its experience in Korean language models, provides essential pre-training and multimodal core technologies. Companies such as Lotte Innovate and POSTECH DX will create industrial value by demonstrating and applying developed technologies.
In manufacturing and robotics, POSTECH DX will verify the effectiveness of AI in on-site settings like steel mills and battery factories. HL Robotics aims to commercialize AI models in autonomous robots, while InterX enhances physical AI model training via digital twin technology.
In the distribution and public sectors, Lotte Innovate applies its AI platform experience, Aimember, across industries. MediaZen and NHN utilize their expertise to deliver AI services in public and financial sectors, respectively.
In the content and media domains, MBC will leverage its extensive broadcast data to train AI on Korean modern history and cultural context, fostering unique content generation capabilities.
The consortium also aims to optimize model learning and inference using indigenous NPUs (Neural Processing Units) and is collaborating with NHN Cloud, a participant in the “K-Cloud” project, to establish one of the largest AI semiconductor farms in Korea. The consortium’s efforts are bolstered by 18 industry sectors and 40 demand companies, including major groups like Lotte and POSCO, indicating strong market trust and expectations.
Moreover, Edge NPU startup Mobilint assists in validating services using edge devices such as drones and robots, proving AI technology’s on-site optimization across various industries like factory automation and smart cities.
NC AI, formed in 2011 as an AI task force within NCSOFT, has built its technological expertise over 14 years. Notably, it achieved global commercialization by listing “VARCO LLM” on the AWS Marketplace in August 2023 and recently unveiled “VARCO VISION 2.0,” offering state-of-the-art VLM performance.
Yunsu Lee, CEO of NC AI, stated, “True AI sovereignty is not just about defensively avoiding reliance on foreign technology, but about becoming a game-changer that sets the stage and rules on the global stage.” He emphasized that this consortium marks the beginning of Korea securing AI leadership across technology, data, and industry, aligning with the national AI governance and contributing to the “AI G3” goal achievement.