The government has selected five consortiums led by leading artificial intelligence(AI) companies for state support in developing homegrown AI foundation models as part of its effort to bolster the country's global AI competitiveness.

According to the Ministry of Science and ICT on Monday, the five consortiums selected among 15 that participated in a public contest last month are led by Naver Cloud, Upstage, SK Telecom, NC AI, and LG AI Research.

A foundation model is a large-scale system trained on broad data that can be used to perform a wide range of tasks.

The consortiums will be eligible for 200 billion won, or around 144 million U.S. dollars, in state support this year, including graphics processing unit assets and high-quality training data.

They will be subject to an evaluation every six months, with the goal of developing a national AI model that can catch up to at least 95 percent of the standard set by global models like ChatGPT or Gemini.

The government plans to conduct a three-phase assessment, including a national contest, to determine by 2027 which two companies will receive the right to use the name "K-AI."