SKT Consortium Advances to Phase 2 of Sovereign AI Foundation Model Project
You're reading Entrepreneur Asia Pacific, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM) announced that the SKT consortium has passed the Phase 1 evaluation of the Korean government's Sovereign AI Foundation Model project and has advanced to Phase 2.
The consortium's model, A.X K1, is Korea's first hyperscale AI model, with a total of 519 billion parameters. In the Phase 1 evaluation conducted using the National Information Society Agency (NIA) benchmark, A.X K1 scored 9.2 out of 10, tying for first place among five participating consortia. The benchmark assesses performance across areas including mathematics, knowledge, long-form comprehension, reliability, and safety.
A.X K1 demonstrated performance comparable to or exceeding global open-source models of similar active parameter size in mathematics, measured by the AIME25 benchmark, and in coding, measured by LiveCodeBench.
The model is released under the Apache 2.0 license, which allows commercial use, modification, and redistribution.
In Phase 2, the SKT consortium plans to expand the model's capabilities beyond text. Development will begin with image recognition and document understanding, followed by voice and video processing later in the year. The consortium also plans to increase the volume of training data and expand language support to Korean, English, Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish. Based on these developments, follow-up models, including a successor tentatively named A.X K2, are planned.
The consortium includes SK Telecom, Krafton, 42dot, Rebellions, Liner, SelectStar, Seoul National University, and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Its research scope has expanded to include Professor Seo Minjoon's lab at KAIST's Graduate School of Physical AI and Professor Seo Insuk's lab at Seoul National University's Department of Mathematical Sciences.
More than 20 organizations, including SK Group affiliates such as SK Hynix, SK Innovation, SK AX, and SK Broadband, as well as the Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies and the Chey Institute for Advanced Studies, are expected to adopt the model as part of broader AI research and application efforts in Korea.
About SK Telecom
Founded in 1984, SK Telecom is advancing its transformation by placing artificial intelligence at the core of its business. The company focuses on AI infrastructure, AI transformation, and AI services to support industry and society.
