Upstage, AMD link up on Korea AI push

South Korean AI startup Upstage said Thursday it has discussed collaboration with US chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices to develop next-generation AI models and support Korea’s domestic artificial intelligence ecosystem.

Upstage CEO Kim Sung-hoon met AMD CEO Lisa Su in Seoul earlier in the day to explore cooperation opportunities. AMD previously invested in Upstage during its Series B funding round.

Under the partnership, Upstage will use AMD’s graphics processing units over the next year to advance its proprietary language model, Solar. The chips will also support development of a national AI model under the government’s “sovereign AI” foundation model initiative.

“We need a lot of chips,” Kim said at a press briefing, underscoring the importance of securing high-quality GPUs at competitive costs.

He added that the collaboration would be critical to improving both Solar and the national AI model, strengthening Korea’s AI competitiveness.

Su said the partnership combines AMD’s Instinct GPUs and ROCm open software platform with Upstage’s AI capabilities.

“This collaboration will help advance Korea’s sovereign AI and accelerate innovation with high performance and an open ecosystem,” she said.