TLDR: Okestro has partnered with the Upstage Consortium, one of five elite teams selected by South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT, to develop a national AI foundation model. This strategic collaboration aims to bolster domestic AI technological independence and integrate generative AI services into the public sector, leveraging Okestro’s cloud expertise and Upstage’s foundation model development.
Seoul, South Korea – Okestro, a prominent artificial intelligence and cloud software company, announced on August 8, 2025, its pivotal role within the Upstage Consortium, a key player in South Korea’s ambitious ‘Independent AI Foundation Model’ project. This government-backed initiative, spearheaded by the Ministry of Science and ICT, seeks to reduce the nation’s reliance on foreign AI technologies and establish South Korea as a global leader in artificial intelligence.
The ‘Independent AI Foundation Model’ project is a strategic endeavor to cultivate proprietary AI capabilities, with a significant investment of 200 billion won (approximately 144 million USD) in government support allocated to the selected consortia. This funding will provide crucial resources, including high-performance graphic processing units (GPUs) and extensive datasets, essential for advanced AI model development.
Okestro’s specific contribution to the Upstage Consortium will focus on building and deploying generative AI services tailored for the public sector. The company plans to integrate generative AI into its existing cloud operations technology, establishing a dedicated ‘AI Cloud’ organization. This new division will enhance Okestro’s core solution, the Cloud Management Platform (CMP), transforming it into an intelligent cloud operation system. A key aspect of their work will involve developing large language model (LLM) services for public institutions, utilizing a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) approach to ensure accuracy and relevance with public data.
The Upstage Consortium, a startup-centric alliance, includes leading academic and technological institutions such as the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Sogang University, and AI firms like Flitto, Nota, and Lablup. Their collective goal is to develop ‘Solar WBL,’ an AI foundation model designed to compete on a global scale.
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This project is part of a broader government strategy to position South Korea among the top three AI powers globally, aligning with President Lee Jae-myung’s ‘AI for All’ pledge. Alongside the Upstage Consortium, four other elite teams led by Naver Cloud, SK Telecom, NC AI, and LG AI Research have also been selected to develop their own national AI models, collectively known as ‘K-AI.’ These consortia will undergo rigorous evaluations every six months, with the ultimate aim of developing models that achieve at least 95% parity with leading global AI systems like ChatGPT or Gemini. By 2027, a three-phase assessment, including a national contest, will determine which two companies will earn the prestigious ‘K-AI’ designation.
