South Korea’s National Growth Fund will lead a 560 billion won investment in local AI startup Upstage, as the government seeks to localise the AI supply chain from chips to models and draw follow-on private funding. The Financial Services Commission approved the investment for Upstage’s next-generation model project. Funding includes 100 billion won from an advanced strategic industries fund, 30 billion won from Korea Development Bank and 430 billion won in private capital.

With South Korea set to implement the National Cybersecurity Basic Guidelines in May and introduce the N2SF framework, security companies are accelerating efforts to target expected demand for related solutions. The guidelines include data controls based on classification levels, minimum security budget and staffing ratios, mandatory multi-factor authentication and new measures for AI systems and private cloud security. Interest is also rising in Anthropic’s Mythos AI model, prompting governments and companies to prepare responses.