Korea is elevating its status as one of the world’s top three artificial intelligence (AI) powerhouses, standing alongside the United States and China. Amid an aggressive push by global big tech companies backed by massive capital and computing infrastructure, AI foundation models independently developed by domestic researchers are gaining recognition for their technological capabilities on the global stage.

According to the Ministry of Science and ICT on the 11th, four proprietary AI foundation models developed by four Korean teams in the first half of this year (January–June) were all included on the “Notable Models” list of Epoch AI, a U.S. nonprofit AI research organization. AI foundation models are large-scale models that are pre-trained on massive datasets and widely used across various AI services such as chatbots, search, and translation.

Inclusion on the Epoch AI list is regarded as a key indicator for comparing AI technological capabilities by country. The “AI Index” report published annually by the Stanford University Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) in the United States also uses this as a core metric. As of 2025, in the “AI Index 2026,” the United States led with 59 models, followed by China with 35 and Korea with 8.

To date this year, only three countries—the United States, China, and Korea—have had domestically developed AI models added to this list. Observers note that, despite having relatively limited funding and computing infrastructure compared with global big tech, Korean researchers have continuously developed internationally competitive models and released them as open source, demonstrating the underlying strength of Korea’s AI ecosystem.

Baek Young-hoon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT, stressed, “Proprietary AI models built with Korean technology are proving their capabilities at a global level and demonstrating their potential,” adding, “As we must compete shoulder to shoulder with leading nations on a larger stage, the government will spare no full support to deliver outcomes that the public can tangibly feel.”

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