Following US restrictions on foreign access to advanced AI, the head of the domestic tech firm cautioned that the only path to national security is an immediate, no-bid enterprise contract.
SEOUL—Following a US directive restricting foreign access to Anthropic PBC’s most advanced models, the head of South Korean artificial intelligence firm Upstage has cautioned that the nation faces a severe geopolitical crisis unless it immediately directs hundreds of millions of dollars in federal subsidies to his specific company.
Upstage CEO Sung Kim addressed an industry summit on Tuesday, framing the American export controls not as a mere supply chain setback, but as a dire warning that the South Korean government must urgently pivot all federal procurement budgets into his startup's accounts. Kim stressed that establishing "Sovereign AI" is a critical national defense protocol that perfectly aligns with his third-quarter revenue targets.
True technological independence means freeing ourselves from the whims of American tech giants and subjecting ourselves entirely to the pricing structures of my enterprise sales team.
According to Kim, relying on foreign technology creates an unacceptable vulnerability for any major economy. To combat this exposure, Upstage has submitted a comprehensive technological independence roadmap to the Ministry of Science and ICT. Ministry officials confirmed the 400-page strategic defense document consists entirely of a standard enterprise licensing agreement, a blank purchase order, and a wire transfer routing number.
Upstage executives also assured the South Korean government that their domestic models carry absolutely zero risk of international technology leakage, noting that their current flagship large language model is still struggling to reliably generate a recipe for kimchi without hallucinating motor oil as a core ingredient.
Industry analysts note that the sudden realization of national security vulnerabilities is currently sweeping the global tech sector. Founders of domestic AI startups across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East have all reportedly issued similar warnings this week, independently concluding that the only way to protect their citizens from foreign digital dominance is for the state to purchase their software without a competitive bidding process.