SK Telecom and Ministry of National Defense sign MOU to leverage sovereign AI foundation models

· The two parties sign MOU to accelerate AI transformation in defense administration
based on SKT’s AI capabilities and GPUaaS infrastructure
· AI optimized for defense environment to be developed through model compression
technologies and training on defense data
· The partnership aims to expand the AI ecosystem and strengthen Korea’s national
AI competitiveness through public-private-military cooperation

SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM, hereinafter referred to as “SKT”) announced today 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 Defense Sector” to accelerate defense AI transformation (AX).

The agreement marks the first application of MSIT’s Sovereign AI Foundation Model Project in the defense 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 Defense AI Planning Bureau at MND.

Under the MOU, SKT and MND will cooperate on developing and demonstrating defense specialized AI models based on the Sovereign AI Foundation Model Project; collecting and utilizing publicly available defense data; and utilizing GPUs provided as part of MSIT’s National AI Project. This partnership is expected to significantly improve the efficiency of defense 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 defense sector. This milestone 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 defense-specialized 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 defense-specific data to create AI models optimized for the defense environment.

In particular, the defense sector is uniquely characterized 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 defense autonomy. SKT plans to provide MND with lightweight versions of its models, optimized 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 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 defense specialized AI model based on the Sovereign AI Foundation Model Project, which could serve as a turning point for taking defense AI transformation to the next level,” said Jeon Joon-boem, Director General of the Defense AI Planning Bureau at MND. “To effectively introduce AI across the defense 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 defense sector,” said Choi Dong-won, Director General of the Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Policy Bureau at MSIT. “We will actively support defense 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 energizes the AI ecosystem in Korea.”

It is deeply meaningful to contribute to strengthening Korea’s national defense competitiveness based on SKT’s integrated capabilities spanning AI technology, data centers, 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.”