SK Telecom and Ministry of National Defence sign MOU to use sovereign AI foundation models in defence applications
SK Telecom and MND sign MOU
SK Telecom has announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Ministry of National Defence (MND) on “Applying the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT)’s Sovereign AI Foundation Model to Defence Sector” to accelerate defence AI transformation (AX).
The agreement marks the first application of MSIT’s Sovereign AI Foundation Model Project in the defence sector. The initiative represents a public-private-military collaboration aimed at expanding the AI ecosystem and strengthening the nation’s AI competitiveness. The signing ceremony was held at SKT’s headquarters in Seoul with the attendance of Kim Myung-gook, Head of Industrial AI Office at SKT, and Jeon Joon-boem, Director General of the Defence AI Planning Bureau at MND.
Under the MOU, SKT and MND will cooperate on developing and demonstrating defence specialised AI models based on the Sovereign AI Foundation Model Project; collecting and utilising publicly available defence data; and utilising GPUs provided as part of MSIT’s National AI Project. This partnership is expected to improve the efficiency of defence administrative operations.
This MOU was established as a follow-up measure under MSIT’s Sovereign AI Foundation Model Project, aimed at accelerating digital transformation by applying AI to the defence sector. This step builds on the SKT Consortium’s success in January, when it qualified for the project’s second phase with ‘A.X K1’ — Korea’s first hyperscale AI model, featuring more than 519 billion parameters. This collaboration is significant in that it goes beyond model development to validate real-world applicability.
SKT will spearhead the development of defence-specialised AI models, using its capabilities in large language model (LLM) development and GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) infrastructure. The company plans to apply lightweighting technologies to its A.X K1 and A.X K2, the next model in the A.X K series currently in development, and further train them with defence-specific data to create AI models optimised for the defence environment.
In particular, the defence sector is uniquely characterised by its demand for the highest levels of security and data sovereignty. This collaboration carries significant meaning as it represents the first step toward introducing sovereign AI to safeguard national defence autonomy. SKT plans to provide MND with lightweight versions of its models, optimised for reduced size and faster processing speed.
MND will provide SKT with GPU resources secured through MSIT’s National AI Project during the second quarter of this year. SKT will use these resources to develop and pilot high performance AI models, while strengthening the collaborative framework built on national R&D infrastructure.
“Through this agreement, we expect to rapidly develop and demonstrate a defence specialised AI model based on the Sovereign AI Foundation Model Project, which could serve as a turning point for taking defence AI transformation to the next level,” said Jeon Joon-boem, the director general of the Defence AI Planning Bureau at MND. “To effectively introduce AI across the defence sector, we will continue to expand cooperation with the private sector, including SKT.”
“This collaboration will serve as a pivotal moment for our proprietary AI technology to be deployed at scale across the defence sector,” said Choi Dong-won, the director general of the Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Policy Bureau at MSIT. “We will actively support defence AI transformation by combining the private sector’s outstanding technological capabilities with the government’s GPU infrastructure, and in doing so, create a virtuous cycle that energises the AI ecosystem in Korea.”
It is deeply meaningful to contribute to strengthening Korea’s national defence competitiveness based on SKT’s integrated capabilities spanning AI technology, data centres and telecommunications,” said Kim Myung-gook, the head of Industrial AI Office at SKT. “Going forward, we will continue to expand AI adoption across sectors where data sovereignty and security are paramount – including finance, manufacturing, healthcare and the public sector – to further advance Korea’s AI competitiveness.”
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