SK Telecom, Ministry of National Defense Sign MOU to Leverage Sovereign AI Foundation Models in Defence Applications
Accelerating AI Transformation in Defence Administration Based on SKT’s AI Capabilities and GPUaaS Infrastructure
SK Telecom has announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Ministry of National Defense (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 SK Telecom’s headquarters in Seoul with the attendance of Kim Myung-gook, Head of Industrial AI Office at SK Telecom, and Jeon Joon-boem, Director General of the Defence AI Planning Bureau at MND.
What Ministry of National Defense and SK Telecom Will Do
Under the MOU, SK Telecom 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 significantly 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 milestone builds on the SK Telecom 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.
SK Telecom will spearhead the development of defence-specialised AI models, leveraging 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.
Ensuring the Highest Level of Security
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. SK Telecom plans to provide MND with lightweight versions of its models, optimised for reduced size and faster processing speed.
MND will provide SK Telecom with GPU resources secured through MSIT’s National AI Project during the second quarter of this year. The company will leverage 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, 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, 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 SK Telecom’s integrated capabilities spanning AI technology, data centres, and telecommunications,” said Kim Myung-gook, 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.”
