South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT announced on Tuesday that three companies have moved forward to the next stage of bidding for a government-backed project focused on developing a free, publicly accessible artificial intelligence service.

According to the ministry's press release, SK Telecom, LG AI Research, and Upstage, an AI startup that developed its own foundational large language model called Solar, have advanced past the preliminary candidate pool of four companies.

The Ministry of Science and ICT confirmed that Motif Technologies was eliminated after ranking last in the second round of evaluations, which incorporated benchmarking tests, expert reviews, and user assessments.

The ministry's "AI for All" initiative is part of the South Korean government's broader effort to establish what it describes as an "AI-based society," where citizens can access AI services regardless of their income, age, or level of digital literacy.

Under this program, the government plans to supply up to 512 NVIDIA B200 graphics processing units to the two or three selected companies, which are expected to launch their AI services within this year.

Starting in 2027, the government will provide budgetary support to cover the operational costs of running these AI models nationwide.

Developers will be required to ensure that at least 50% of their systems utilize domestic AI models that comply with the government's independent standards for foundational large language models.

To further enrich the local AI ecosystem, companies with proprietary foundational models must also allocate more than 30% of their systems to AI models developed by other South Korean enterprises.