A consortium led by Naver Cloud Corp. has been selected for a government project to develop an artificial intelligence foundation model specialized in cybersecurity, the Ministry of Science and ICT said Thursday.

The cloud and AI arm of portal operator Naver Corp. outperformed a rival consortium led by SK Telecom Co., receiving strong marks for its broad industry-academia-research partnership, technological capabilities and development strategy, among other factors, the ministry said.

The Naver Cloud consortium includes 32 companies and institutions, among them LG CNS Co. and LG Uplus Corp., along with major domestic universities and research organizations.

To support development of the model, the government plans to provide the consortium with up to 256 Nvidia B200 graphics processing units over the next 10 months.

The ministry said it plans to sign a contract with the consortium later this month, which would pave the way for full-scale development.

The project is designed to create a sovereign cybersecurity AI model tailored to South Korea's security environment, as cyber risks rise amid the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence technologies. The government-backed approach also underscores the growing role of public-private collaboration in areas where security requirements, data sensitivity and local operating conditions can make generalized AI systems less suitable. (Yonhap)