Naver to develop Thai-specific LLM

Naver Cloud accelerates its entry into the Southeast Asian sovereign AI market. Naver Cloud announced on the 23rd (Korean time) that it has signed a business agreement for joint development with SIAM.AI Cloud, a Thai AI and cloud platform company, for the development of a large-scale Thailanguage model (LLM) and AI agent. Both parties plan to build a Thailanguage-specific LLM that can be applied to actual services by the end of this year, utilizing their LLM construction and operation experience, vast Thai language data, and GPU infrastructure. Based on this, they will also introduce a tourism-focused AI agent with high demand in Thailand.

SIAM AI is considered a leading company driving Thailand’s AI transformation. Both parties plan to expand their business to healthcare, public services, academia, and other fields by securing a lineup of models of various sizes in the future. The agreement was made at the ‘NVIDIA Cloud Partner Summit’ held in Taiwan. Naver Cloud and SIAM AI were the only partners from Korea and Thailand respectively. The signing ceremony was attended by Naver’s CEO Lee Hae-jin and Naver’s CEO Choi Soo-yeon discussing expansion plans for sovereign AI business in Southeast Asia.

Naver Cloud has been closely cooperating with NVIDIA since last year to solidify the actual business model for sovereign AI construction. The collaboration with SIAM AI is also seen as the fruit of these efforts. Kim Yu-won, CEO of Naver Cloud, said, “This collaboration goes beyond simply constructing LLM and aims to support Thailand in developing and operating AI models domestically, providing countries seeking to build their own AI ecosystem with a new direction.”

Throughout this process, Naver Cloud plans to actively share its technological capabilities and know-how to help Thailand develop the capacity to independently develop and operate AI models and applications. Kim emphasized, “We plan to accelerate our entry into the Southeast Asian market by collaborating with partners like SIAM AI who can build sovereign AI locally.”

Meanwhile, Naver executives visiting Taiwan discussed the potential for expansion in the Southeast Asian and global markets through meetings with various partners, including Taiwan’s largest telecommunications company, Chunghwa Telecom, in addition to NVIDIA.

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Image source: Naver