AMD and Upstage Expand Partnership to Accelerate Korea’s Sovereign AI

During a visit to Seoul, AMD CEO Lisa Su met with Upstage founder and CEO Kim Sung-hoon at the Four Seasons Hotel to discuss Korea’s sovereign AI ambitions and how to accelerate AI innovation.

Su said AMD would provide the performance, efficiency, and open ecosystem necessary to elevate Korea’s sovereign AI capabilities, by combining AMD Instinct GPUs with ROCm open software and Upstage’s expertise.

The two leaders agreed to broaden strategic cooperation to speed the development and deployment of next-generation AI models and to help build Korea’s sovereign AI ecosystem, with a focus on regional AI innovation.

As part of the agreement, Upstage will adopt AMD Instinct MI355 GPUs over the next year under a multi-stage roadmap, using them for its large language model, Sola, and for its document-processing AI solutions.

Upstage also plans to use AMD GPUs as part of the government-led Independent AI Foundation Model project, taking an active role in national AI model development and helping diversify Korea’s sovereign AI infrastructure.

Kim told reporters that “we need many chips” and that securing capable chips at affordable prices requires ongoing efforts, adding that AMD’s collaboration would be a key driver for advancing the Sola model and Korea’s national AI model development, boosting Korea’s AI competitiveness through global GPU collaboration.

Su emphasized Upstage’s role in delivering advanced language models and AI engines across corporate, government, and regulated industries, positioning Korea at the forefront of AI innovation.

For U.S. readers, the partnership signals deeper ties between a leading American chipmaker and a major Korean AI player, with potential implications for global GPU supply chains, hardware availability, and cross-border research and development in sovereign AI infrastructure. It also highlights Korea’s growing importance as a hub for AI hardware and software ecosystems, with possible impacts on U.S. cloud providers, AI services, and technology policy.

The meeting occurred at a central Seoul hotel during Su’s visit, underscoring Korea’s ongoing push to strengthen its sovereign AI framework and attract foreign technology partnerships.