Upstage bets on full home-grown AI stack as Korea pushes 'sovereign AI'

South Korean firm Upstage said Tuesday it will pull its model, its workplace AI tools and a web portal into a single operation.

The bet is that a home-grown AI system built end-to-end can compete without leaning on American or Chinese technology, a pitch the company is making as it prepares to go public.

The ambition is not Upstage's alone.

It is one of five firms the government picked last year to develop Korea's own AI models rather than rely on foreign ones, a push officials call "sovereign A ...