Seoul: A consortium led by Naver Cloud Corp. has been selected for a government project to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) foundation model specialized in cybersecurity, the Ministry of Science and ICT said Thursday. The cloud and AI arm of portal operator Naver Corp. surpassed a rival consortium led by SK Telecom Co., receiving high marks for its comprehensive industry-academia-research partnership, technological capabilities, and development strategy, among other factors, the ministry stated.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the Naver Cloud consortium consists of 32 companies and institutions, including LG CNS Co. and LG Uplus Corp., alongside major domestic universities and research organizations. The government intends to provide the consortium with up to 256 Nvidia B200 graphics processing units (GPUs) over the next 10 months to assist in the model's development.

The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to sign a contract with the consortium later this month, which will enable the commencement of full-scale development. The project is aimed at creating a sovereign cybersecurity AI model tailored to South Korea's security environment, addressing the growing cyber risks associated with rapidly advancing AI technologies.