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AMD and Upstage expand partnership to support Korea's AI push

Published: 19 Mar. 2026, 13:03 Updated: 19 Mar. 2026, 14:40

LIM JEONG-WON
[email protected]

Upstage CEO Sung Kim, right, and AMD Chair and CEO Lisa Su shake hands during a meeting at a hotel in central Seoul on March 19. [YONHAP]

U.S. chip giant AMD and Korean AI startup Upstage said Thursday that they have expanded their strategic collaboration to accelerate next-generation AI development and support Korea's sovereign AI push, as AMD steps up its presence in the region.

The announcement follows a meeting in Seoul between Upstage CEO Sung Kim and AMD Chair and CEO Lisa Su, where the two leaders discussed broader cooperation to drive AI innovation.

AMD and Upstage have been strategic partners since AMD joined Upstage's 62 billion won ($41.3 million) Series B bridge investment last year.

Under the expanded collaboration, Upstage will deploy AMD's Instinct MI355 accelerators based on a multiphase road map over the next year, leveraging its GPUs to enhance its large language models (LLMs) and document processing engines.

The deployment will also support the development of a sovereign AI model as part of the Korean government-led AI foundation model project. Upstage has advanced to the second round of the project, alongside SK Telecom and LG AI Research.

Through the partnership, AMD and Upstage aim to strengthen Korea's domestic AI ecosystem while diversifying the nation's sovereign AI infrastructure, the companies said.

Upstage said the collaboration, powered by AMD's GPU, is expected to play a key role in advancing its LLMs and building the country's sovereign AI model.

Upstage CEO Sung Kim, right, and AMD Chair and CEO Lisa Su, left, are seen during a meeting at a hotel in central Seoul on March 19. [NEWS1]

“Pairing that with domestic infrastructure gives us the foundation to make Korea a genuinely competitive force in global AI,” Kim said.

AMD CEO Su said she has chosen Upstage as its partner as the startup is at the forefront of AI innovation in Korea.

“This collaboration brings together AMD Instinct GPUs and ROCm open software with Upstage's expertise to advance Korea's sovereign AI capabilities, and deliver the performance, efficiency and open ecosystem needed to accelerate AI innovation,” she said.

“We requested that AMD invest heavily in Korea,” Kim said after the meeting with Su. “This means receiving GPUs cheaply and quickly. To prevent a single company from monopolizing the market, I asked AMD to supply the latest GPUs to Korea first, and Su said it was possible.”

Upstage CEO Sung Kim is seen before a meeting with AMD Chair and CEO Lisa Su at a hotel in central Seoul on March 19. [YONHAP]

“We need a lot of chips,” Kim continued. “We must continue our efforts to secure good chips at affordable prices.”

“Collaboration with AMD will serve as a key catalyst not only for the advancement of our LLM models but also for the development of national AI models,” Kim added. “We will further enhance the competitiveness of Korean AI through technological collaboration based on the latest global AI GPUs.”

During her visit to Korea this week, Su also met with other business leaders, including Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon.

On Wednesday, AMD announced an agreement with Samsung Electronics to purchase the latter's high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips for its next-generation GPU, with plans to expand cooperation beyond memory chips to advanced foundry and packaging services.

BY LIM JEONG-WON, YONHAP [[email protected]]