Naver Cloud Consortium to Develop Cybersecurity-Specialized AI Foundation Model

The Ministry of Science and ICT has selected the Naver Cloud consortium as the operator of its project to develop a cybersecurity-specialized AI foundation model. The government initiative, aimed at embedding national cybersecurity capabilities into artificial intelligence technology, will move into full-scale development starting in September.

[코리안투데이] Announcement of the selection results for the operator of the cybersecurity-specialized AI foundation model development project © 장형임 기자

The Ministry of Science and ICT (led by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyung-hoon) announced on the 3rd that it had conducted presentation evaluations of the two bidders that entered the open call for the ‘Development of a Cybersecurity-Specialized AI Foundation Model’ project and selected the Naver Cloud consortium as the final operator.

The project stems from the government’s vision of making artificial intelligence a core instrument of national cybersecurity. It aligns with state agendas such as ‘building the country that uses AI best in the world,’ ‘realizing a society grounded in AI,’ and ‘establishing a robust digital security and safety framework to sustain the AI era.’ Underlying it is the judgment that responding to increasingly sophisticated cyber threats requires proprietary AI-based technology tailored to the security domain.

During the presentation evaluation, a panel of external experts in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity comprehensively assessed each consortium’s business proposal and presentation, weighing technical capability and development experience, the excellence and feasibility of development strategies, technologies and goals, as well as marketability and ripple effects.

The selected Naver Cloud consortium was recognized for assembling a large-scale industry-academia-research consortium with outstanding technical capability and development experience, and for the excellence of its development strategy and goals, including a configuration of multiple agents and harnesses. With Naver Cloud as the lead institution, the consortium will undertake the task of ‘developing an AI foundation model to embed national cybersecurity capabilities.’ Participating institutions number 32 in total, including security and IT firms such as LG CNS, LG Uplus, Sands Lab, ESTsecurity and WINS, along with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, KEPCO KDN, the Financial Security Institute, the industry-academia cooperation foundations of Korea University, Seoul National University, Chung-Ang University and POSTECH, and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).

The government will provide the selected consortium with a total of 256 B200 GPUs for 10 months beginning in September 2026. However, the program will run in stages: after five months of support, whether to provide the remaining five months will be decided based on the results of an interim evaluation. The aim is to guarantee development speed and outcomes by injecting large-scale computing resources.

The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to sign an agreement with the selected bidder within September and begin developing the cybersecurity-specialized model with GPU support. It also plans to immediately form a working-level council with the selected bidder to swiftly generate results.

If the project bears fruit, an artificial intelligence foundation for detecting and responding to cyber threats using domestic technology will be established, which is expected to reduce dependence on foreign technology and serve as a basis for further strengthening the safety of citizens’ digital lives.

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